Seriously Forbidden Fruit
by qfd
Summary: Jonathan Toews has a well earned nickname, Capt. Serious, because he's not about the parties or picking up random girls like teammate Pat Kane. So what happens when his heart is stolen by a beautiful fan of the Hawk's mortal enemies, the Vancouver Canuck
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"I'm too old for trick or treating," Edie muttered, wrinkling her nose at the Jessica Rabbit style arrest me red sequined dress that her friend was holding up.

"It's Hallowe'en, we're in a strange city, will you please take the stick out of your ass," Carolyn sighed and rolled her sky blue eyes. "I think it was really nice of the concierge to score us tickets to this private party."

"Only because he was flirting with you," Edie turned her attention back to the World Series on the television and tried to ignore the way the light in the room was turning the dress her friend was still holding up into a fiery disco ball.

"And he was only flirting with me because you wouldn't pay attention to him when he was flirting with you," Carolyn sighed again as she draped the glittery dress over the back of the chair and went back to going through the pieces of the costume she'd picked out from the catalogue that she'd ordered the costumes from. The skin tight tiger costume suited her colouring perfectly. Her honey hued curls and her tanned skin were an excellent match for the deep gold and black stripes. Edie watched as Carolyn slide the headband with the furry ears attached into her hair and shook her head.

"We've been in sales meetings all day. How can you possibly have enough energy to want to go dancing?" she asked, trying to turn her attention back to the pitcher on the mound and his Grizzly Adams beard but her gaze kept being pulled back to the way the tail attached to the curve skimming body suit her friend was wearing twitched as she swayed in front of the mirror.

"Sales, schmales. We've been sitting in a board room all day. I don't know about you but I feel the need to stretch. There is no way I can stay cooped up in this hotel room." Carolyn giggled, making a pawing motion towards her own reflection in the mirror. Edie groaned and dropped her face into the pillow she'd been cuddling.

"How can you be this awake, this time at night?" she demands groggily, forcing herself up onto her elbows and making a face when her friend intentionally wiggles her tail at her.

"Coffee," she replies, reaching for her Starbucks cup and draining it, "and the idea of picking up some horny married man and bringing him back to my lair and tearing his jugular out, rrrawrr," she adds, gnashing her teeth and making a clawing motion with her blood red painted nails. "Oh, and tequila!" she adds, producing a bottle and two shot glasses.

"You scare me," Edie groaned and rolled her eyes but slid to the side of the bed and sat up. "I suppose this means I'll have to shave my legs."

* * *

"What are you supposed to be?" Kaner asked, flexing his muscles beneath the Spidey suit that Tazer couldn't help but think might actually help his shorter, fright wigged teammate pick up women, if only because he was going to have a hard time drinking through the mesh covered mouth.

"Bond, James Bond," Jonathan replied calmly, affecting an English accent and tugging on his bow tie as they walked through the lobby of the James Hotel.

"Lame," Kaner shook his head, or at least the stocking type material that covered his usually unruly curls moved, and Jonathan assumed that's what he was doing. "That's not even a costume."

"You're lucky I came at all," Jon began before producing a black, felt mask that had reminded him a bit of Zorro or the Lone Ranger would wear. That had been the original idea for his costume but what with one thing or another…. "I do have this," he added as Kane made a sort of snorting noise behind his mask. "What? I didn't have time to really put anything else together."

"Like I said, lame," Pat repeated and then skipped ahead into the restaurant, heading straight for the bar.

"That should be interesting," Jon muttered to himself as he tied the ribbons of the mask behind his head before he proceeded slowly into the room. The place was crowded with people in elaborate costumes, everything from the usual cat and clown costumes to a pair that looked like Anthony and Cleopatra and another pair in full Louis the Sixteenth and Antoinette crushed velvet, giant hoop skirts, ribbons and piles high white hair.

Those weren't the outfits that got his attention however. There were two women at the bar that Kaner was already coolly inching towards. One of the girls was in a skin tight tiger costume that almost nothing to the imagination. The other…well the other girl made his mouth go dry, caused him to develop tunnel vision and a serious case of ball tightening.

She had long, really dark brown hair that looked like a fountain of chocolate fondue complete with loose waves that begged him to run his hands over and through them. She was wearing what he assumed was meant to be a Jessica Rabbit dress; bright red, covered in sequins and cut up to…well all the way up to a point that made it pretty damn clear there was no way in hell there was going to be any panties underneath it.

Grabbing a glass of champagne from the tray of a passing waiter, Jon gulped it down, for Dutch courage and then began to make his way through the crowd.

He was impressed that the simple mask he was wearing was keeping him from being stopped every few feet. Not that he begrudged fans an autograph or a photo, but it was nice, for once, to en joy a level of anonymity, especially if that meant he beat Pat to the punch.

"Can I buy you another one of those?" The girl with the long dark hair that he hoped to hell wasn't a wig looked up at him speculatively, a single eyebrow arched over a sparkle encrusted mask that turned up into points at the corners, surrounding a pair of breathtaking emerald green eyes that almost out sparkled her outfit. '_Damn'_ he thought to himself '_this gets better by the minute'_.

"For Your Eyes Only?" she asked and Jon groaned inwardly. Next she was gonna say that they should go to his room, order cheesecake and watch Family Guy.

"Something like that," he smiled and she smiled back, her full ruby red lips spreading across a row of perfectly straight bright white teeth. "So what are you drinking?"

"A fangbang," she grinned, holding up the tri-coloured beverage in the shot glass and then, with a wink, she downed it, and then, to make an uncomfortable situation worse, she licked her lips slowly and deliberately as she held his gaze.

"You're so in over your head here Tazer," Kane whispered into Jon's ear as he sidled up to the women, putting one arm around each of their waists. "Is this man boring the shit out of you ladies?"

"Your wingman?" the woman asked, peeling Pat's hand from her hip like she was afraid she might catch something from it. Jon grinned and shook his head.

"Not if I can help it." Jon narrowed his eyes at his teammate but whether it was his own mask or Kane's Pat didn't take a blind bit of notice to the implied warning.

"So, what are we doing here ladies? Shots? Hey, barkeep, line 'em up!" Jon looked apologetically towards the sizzling, curvaceous brunette but she was laughing and shaking her head.

"Is mini me even old enough to be in here?" she asked in a sultry whisper, her breath warm on his cheek as she leaned towards him.

"Barely," Jon replied honestly as he nervously watched the bartender upend a bottle of tequila into a line of slim, tall shot glasses. It wasn't that he didn't drink, it was just that he didn't drink during the season, or at least not more than maybe a beer or glass of wine and Tequila…that was definitely something that was more in Kaner's realm. Jon stared down at the liquid gold in the small glass as Kane handed it to him and a little voice in the back of his head whispered 'this is not a very good idea'.

"Bottoms up." It didn't seem to matter how many dirty looks Jon sent his smaller, louder teammate, Pat didn't seem to be getting the hint. "Oh c'mon Captain Serious, drink the fuck up."

"Captain Serious?" The tiger girl grabbed Jon's and Pat's arm and laughed. "Are you serious? Is that your nickname?" She looked right at him and Jon reminded himself to give Pat a gigantic and hopefully painful wedgie sometime in the near future.

"Yeah, I guess," he admitted, wishing that his mask covered more of his face as he felt his cheeks start to burn. Normally he didn't mind that particular moniker, after all, he did take his job seriously, especially in comparison to Pat who didn't take anything seriously, but in front of beautiful women, knowing that Pat would feel the need to explain what a….

"We all call her Miss Intense, like, _all_ the time," tiger girl gushed, slapping her hand playfully towards Jessica Rabbit's arm.

"You do?" He felt himself grinning like an idiot even as the beautiful brunette glowered at her friend.

Shit, what else did they have in common?

* * *

Edie glared at Carolyn, but her friend seemed oblivious as she put her head together with Spidey as they started to swap stories about how uptight their friends were.

"They do," Edie sighed, downing another shot and closing her eyes to enjoy the burn as the Tequila hit the back of her throat. "It's just because I understand that there's a time to work and there's a time to…."

"Another time to play, I totally get that," the hottie in the expensive tux finished her sentence with an eager, Leave it Beaver sort of grin on his face. He had a nice smile, but she found herself drawn to a mole must below his mouth, and his strong, thick neck, and the way the fine material of his suit pulled taut over his obviously muscular frame every time he moved.

"You going to drink that?" she asked, glancing down at the still full shot glass in his hand. She watched him raise it to his lips and then make a face as he forced himself to swallow the fire water. Her gaze roamed over his smooth skin and she found that she was reaching out to brush the tips of his fingers along his cheek while she wondered if his short cropped dark hair was as soft as his skin.

"You wanna…dance?" he asked, glancing towards the small but packed dance floor that had been set up towards the back of the restaurant. Edie followed his gaze and tried to calculate how her personal space was going to be affected by following him into that crush. "I'll warn you," he added, drawing her attention back to his strong jaw and his soft, deep voice, "I kind of suck…white boy, no rhythm."

Edie was about to say no, not because she wasn't a fan of Lady GaGa but because she couldn't figure out how to dance to that kind of music in the curve skimming dress without her tits spilling out everywhere, but just then, as if it was some kind of a sign, the music changed, slowed.

"I love this song," she closed her eyes, smiled and hummed along to the Rolling Stones 'Wild Horses'. Edie opened her eyes to find her James Bond staring back at her, slack jawed.

"You have to be kidding," he said, almost like he was unable to edit the thought and the words had spilled forth, unbidden.

"What's that?" she asked, still half listening to Mick Jagger's crooning voice.

"They're like…they're my favorite band. We have to dance now," he said in that earnest sort of voice that she was finding beyond endearing.

"How can I say no?" '_Fuck, now I'm channeling Carolyn'_ Edie thought as she allowed him to take her hand. He turned and she felt a the fine hairs on the back of her neck rise as she was faced with the width of his shoulders that the well tailored suit barely hid. Her brain began to undress him, imagining the smooth, sculpted body beneath the cloth and stitching and her breath caught in her throat. '_I don't even know his name and if he asked me right now, I'd follow him anywhere_.'

He lead her right into the heart of the floor, having had to squeeze their bodies through tiny gaps, ducking and twisting to avoid flying elbows and once he winced when his foot was trodden on. When he seemed satisfied that he had enough shoulder and elbow room to turn around, he held his hands out like a pro on Dancing with the Stars.

Edie placed her hand in his and walked into the circle of his arms. He put his other hand gently on the small of her back and she fought the urge to close her eyes and concentrate on how hot his hand felt on her skin, or how big his hand was as his fingers spread open over her tailbone. '_This is what it means to be putty in a man's hands'_ she thought as his body swayed against hers.

* * *

"Are you from around here?" Jon asked hopefully as her soft body pressed against his, forcing him to think about Kaner's lucky sweat socks that hadn't seen the inside of a washing machine in over a year, Sharpie's lucky tie that was so covered in sauce stains he couldn't remember what colour it originally had been and Keith's favorite weight gloves that looked like they'd been munched on by a swarm of moths.

"No, we're just here for a couple of days, on business," she replied, her full, red lips almost touching his jaw as she spoke. They were so close it was hard to think about anything but pressing his own lips against them, but he knew if he let his brain go there, it would quickly go down a road that would lead somewhere that would make it obvious what just thinking casually about her bangin' body was doing to him. He felt disappointed to hear that she wasn't the kind of pick up he'd be able to get a number from so he could slow this down, maybe actually take the time to get to know her better.

Not that he was against picking up girls in bars, he just didn't make as much of a habit of it as Kaner did. He'd been called a prude by more than one of the guys for not having a parade of puck fucks going in and out of his new house but it just wasn't his style. The only time he felt like throwing the kind of selfish hump into some girl that required no exchange of identities was when he was good and pissed about something. He'd figured out a while ago that a nameless one night stand was better than breaking a bar stool over someone's head.

"So where are you from?" he asked, pulling back enough to give himself a minute to regain some semblance of composure and so that he could look down into those jewel green eyes that reminded him of a cat's. If she'd traded costumes with her friend…but that didn't bear thinking of. It was bad enough seeing her in this red dress that looked like it was clinging to her every curve for dear life. If she'd been in that skin tight tiger suit, she'd probably have been arrested.

"Vancouver, BC not Washington," she added with a slight smile and an emphasis that made him laugh and groan at the same time. "Hey, what's that?" she poked him in the side and he flinched. He was beyond ticklish. "You don't like my city?"

"It's not that," he explained quickly, before she got the wrong idea, "it's just…well first you obviously think I'm some…dumb Yank," he whispered into her hair, pitching his voice low and hoping that no one in the crush of bodies around them overheard him. "And secondly, I actually like the city, quite a lot actually but uh…well there's the rivalry thing." There it was, he was giving himself away. If she knew anything about hockey she'd guess, he thought, but instead she looked up at him with a blank expression.

"Tell me about it," she laughed. It was a sound that made his insides feel like they'd been tossed into a hot air popcorn machine. "I don't even watch Hawks highlights, they make me so mad." Jon managed a half a smile, and only just. So this was it. Maybe she hadn't recognized him right off, but once he took off the mask….

"They won the Cup," he pointed out quietly, feeling defensive and hating the feeling of a lead anvil sitting in his stomach at the thought that she hated him.

"I guess they do have a few good players," she added with another roll of her cat like eyes.

"Yeah? Like who?" It felt pathetic to feel hopeful that he'd be one of them but Jon felt his heart stop beating as he waited for her to answer.

"Well I don't think anyone can deny that Hossa is just crazy talented. I mean, three years in a row in the final, you have to give him props," she replied thoughtfully and Jon squeezed his eyes shut. Of all the players on his team, she picked the red headed Czech? "Oh, I like this song too." Jon tilted his head to one side. He'd been so busy listening to the sound of his own rapidly beating heart and her sultry voice that he hadn't even realized the song had changed. Shaking his head, he couldn't help but laugh. "What? What did I do now?" she asked, looking up at him with the cutest look of confusion on her face.

"This is only…it's probably my favorite song," he told her as the chorus of Our Lady Peace's 'Somewhere Out There' filled the room. He drew his hand from hers and slid her mask up, slowly, until it was more a headband and drank in the entirety of her beautiful face and then he captured her lips with his in a soft, searing kiss.

It felt like he's kissed a flame. It felt like he'd put his heart on a spit over an open fire. It felt like he'd grabbed hold of a live car battery and jolt after jolt of electricity was being sent through his entire body. As he reluctantly withdrew his lips from hers', his hand shook where it cupped her cheek and he realized he was sweating and that his stomach was churning, threatening to send the tequila he'd drunk back up. He felt worse than he had before game one of the Cup final.

"What was that for?" she asked quietly, her emerald green gaze searching his. She didn't look pissed off. In face she was wearing this adorably bemused smile and leaning into his hand. They were standing still in the middle of a writhing mass of bodies. The music had sped up, that new My Chemical Romance Song was playing and the crowd on the dance floor was bouncing up and down and singing along with the chorus.

"I just…I had to do that just once before I did this." Taking a deep breath he reached back and pulled on the ribbon, undoing the knot holding his mask in place.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"I was drinking that!" Carolyn complained as Edie grabbed her arm in a vice like grip and dragged her, jogging after her, towards the women's bathrooms. "Have you never heard that it's not good to leave your drink unattended?" her friend added in a high pitched whine that Edie was all too aware had more to do with Spidey Muscles than it had to do with the Pomegranate Martini she'd just been forced to leave behind.

Edie shoved the door open, almost sending a toga clad guest head over heels, and headed straight for the complimentary toiletries in a decorative basket on the counter in the middle of four of those fancy glass bowl sinks. Grabbing a pocket sized bottle of mouthwash, she upended the mint flavored liquid into her mouth and tipped her head back, swishing the strong stuff around until she could no longer taste his tequila flavored lips.

"You know tequila would kill whatever germs you think you have in there," Carolyn muttered from where she was leaning against the counter, her arms crossed and her bottom lip jutting out in a classic pouting frown.

"No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, _no_!" Edie spit out the Scope, clinging to the edge of the sink with her eyes squeezed shut. "_Fuck_ no!" she added for good measure, pounding her fist on the tiled surface.

"Umm, you gonna tell me what you're flipping out about or are you gonna just have a little melt down, cuz I have to pee," Carolyn yawned and then teetered drunkenly towards one of the stalls.

"I just kissed Jonathan Toews," Edie hissed, wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand, and still the tingling sensation that his kiss had left behind refused to leave her lips.

"_The_ Jonathan Toews?" Carolyn whispered back, looking way too happy about what Edie had just told her, which only served to make Edie roll her eyes and shake her head.

"He's the antichrist!" Edie growled back, glancing warily towards the women still waiting in line for one of the stalls, knowing that if a local heard what she was saying that she might just find herself locked in one of the stalls, or worse, dragged out by her hair. "Well, no, Kane is the antichrist but he's a close fucking…oh my god." Edie covered her mouth with her hand and shut her eyes again. "Oh…oh that so explains…oh my god Carly…Spidey…that's Kane."

"Oh my god," Carolyn clapped her hands and laughed, a high trill that sounded more like birdsong than a sound a human should be able to make. "Patrick Kane bought me drinks."

"Carly!" Edie snapped her hands in front of her friend's face. "_That_ is _not_ a good thing. They're Hawks. We hate Hawks," she added in a whisper, sending another cautious glance towards toga girl who was still glaring at her for opening the door into her ass.

"Oh please. You are not a professional hockey player, no matter how good you do in the office pool, you are still not an _actual_ member of the Canucks," Carolyn reminded her using her best teacher tutting voice. "You can't actually hate someone for playing for another team and besides, you cheered for him when he played for us in the Gold Medal game, right?"

"Yesss," Edie sighed. She had to admit that she'd been very impressed with Toews' play during the Olympics, but that didn't change the fact that he was Captain of the team that had kicked her beloved 'Nucks out of the playoffs, two years running. "I know that but…."

"Well they do say opposites attract," Carolyn pointed out as she headed back towards the bathroom stall. Edie stared daggers at her back.

"Carly, this is serious!" Edie stamped her foot and curled her hands into fists. "He's the captain of the enemy! The Hawks are the evil empire."

"No, Eden, he's just a young, single, hot millionaire who happens to play hockey in another city. What's a little tonsil hockey between young available professionals?" Edie shook her head, wishing she had gone on this sales trip with one of her workmates that understood her passion for hockey better than fun but flighty Carolyn, even if the clients had a hard time saying no when the two of them arrived together.

"You don't get it," Edie began, making a face at the whiny sound of her own voice.

"You know what I get?" Carolyn stumbled back out of the stall, turning around to have Edie pull the zipper on the cat suit up. "I get that you haven't had a good shag in months and you've just snubbed the first nice, good looking guy that has the guts to come on to you." When put like that, it made Edie's skin crawl. Still, she reminded herself, he is captain of the Borg and….

"Did you see that girl slap Toews?" Edie ducked her head down so that she was mostly hidden behind her friend and cursed.

"Edie…you didn't." Edie didn't need to answer. The guilt on her face was clear as Carolyn looked over her shoulder and shook her head. "Well if he doesn't have you arrested for assault, I say he isn't James Bond, he's freaking Prince Charming."

* * *

"It's not that funny," Jon sighs, refusing to even look over at his teammate who's forehead is currently resting on his forearms as he laughs uproariously.

"Oh no, it's totally fucking funny. No, wait, it's fucking _hilarious_. I can't wait to tell the rest of the guys," Kane snorts, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand. "Captain Serious, shot down in flames!"

"I just took her by surprise," Jon insists, rubbing at his cheek, which is still stinging from the open handed slap she'd laid on him. He'd expected a reaction, just not _that_ reaction, exactly. Downing a shot of tequila, he tried to ignore the fact that Pat was texting everyone they knew and that the next time he walked into the dressing room he'd be the butt of every joke, at least until something unfortunate happened to someone else.

It was stupid. He'd known the girl for all of five minutes, and yet he felt crushed by her rejection. There was something about her….

"Oh god Tazer, better duck. The she bitch is back." Jon didn't turn. He didn't want to see her green eyes or her full lips. He just wanted to pretend that he'd never met her, that they'd never kissed. He wanted to pretend the whole thing was some kind of bad dream.

"Don't you have a bridge to protect somewhere, Troll?" he tried not to grin, biting down hard on the inside of his cheek, but he had to admit it was good to hear a woman put his cocky teammate in his place once in a while. He tapped the lip of the shot glass and watched as the bartender filled it to the brim with liquid amber. Still resisting the urge to turn and meet the gaze he could feel boring into him, he tipped the whiskey into his mouth and closed his eyes as it burned the back of his throat.

"Is he right? Do I need to duck?" he asked quietly, tapping the lip of the glass again.

"No," she replied quietly from somewhere right behind his shoulder, "and I'm sorry about that by the way. I may have…I did overreact…apparently." He tried not to but he couldn't help smiling. This apology thing obviously wasn't coming easily to her. "Did I hurt you …badly?" He could tell just by her tone that she was still hoping that she had done some kind of damage. Of course she had, but most of it was emotional. Not that he was going to admit to that.

"I've been hit by some pretty big guys. I think I'll live," he replied dryly, up ending the shot glass and wincing as the firewater hit his throat. The bartender went to refill the glass but he held his hand over it and shook his head. His head was already swimming and the alcohol wasn't helping. "So is that it? Are you done trying to humiliate me?" he asked, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye as she slid onto the barstool beside him. He heard Kane's muffled sniggering from the other side of him, but he didn't care. He should probably just ignore her and hope she would go away but he just couldn't.

"Is that what I was doing?" There it was again, that playful, even sarcastic lilt to her voice. His hand curled around the glass hard enough to make his knuckles turn white.

"You know you were. You knew who I was. You just played along until you could get your jab in. So now I guess you'll go back home and yuck it up with your friends, or have you already tweeted that?" He looked over at her and either she was actually shocked or she was a really good actress. He was willing to bet on the latter.

"And here I was thinking that _he_ was the one with the ego," she snapped, glancing at Kane who was back to flirting with her Tiger friend. "Maybe if I paid any attention to you when you play in Vancouver I would recognize you but you never really do much there because our boys keep you pretty contained, so no, I actually _didn't_ recognize you Mister Superstar," she snarled and then turned around and slid off of the stool. It must have been reflex but his hand was around her wrist before she could take another step and then they were both looking down at where they were joined, and then slowly, slowly their gazes met and to his surprise, she slowly smiled.

"Can we just..., can we start again?" he asked, half expecting her to laugh in his face. He tried to steeled himself for it but instead of her half smile turning into something reminiscent of the Joker, she gave a sort of shrug. "Do you wanna get out of here? Go for a walk?" he added quickly so she wouldn't think he was being, well, Kane.

With a quick glance towards her friend, who was playfully paying at Pat's flexed biceps, she nodded and Jon slipped his hand down, lacing his fingers with hers' and led her away from the bar.

* * *

The first thing he wanted to do was tell her that he wasn't one of those guys. She looked up into his shy, boyish smile as he slid his coat over her shoulders and raised an eyebrow. The funny thing was, she believed him but there was no need to let him off that easy.

"I think it was the mask," he told her by way of an excuse, "I think I got a little too into character."

"So what you're trying to do say is not you don't normally run around kissing random girls?" she asked, not mentioning that he was still holding her hand as they walked down Chicago's famous Magnificent Mile.

"No," he answered quickly and insistently, his dark eyes round and pleading as he looked down at her. "But you were the prettiest girl in the room, so, can you blame me?"

"Now I know you're bullshitting me," she smirked up at him, expecting to see that sly, flirtatious smile he'd been wearing out on the dance floor. Instead he shook his head vehemently.

"I'm not like that. Not ever."

"You're all like that, all professional athletes are _exactly_ like that," she told him firmly, though she was wearing a smile as she did. He shook his head but she noticed that he wouldn't meet her gaze either. "Oh c'mon, all those girls in your jersey, begging for it, you're trying to tell me you don't take them up on it once in a while?" She bumped him with her hip to reinforce that she was kind of kidding, but as they walked past a particularly brightly lit store front she got to watch his smooth cheeks turn a bright shade of pink. Damn, it just wasn't fair how college boy cute he looked when he did that. "Okay, say you don't," she glanced around at the faces on the sidewalk, some in costume, some not, many of them recognizing the kid that had brought The Cup back to Chicago, but none of them stopped them as they continued to walk. "Are you still going to tell me that you're really single?" They'd walked past his Mercedes in the parking lot of the Hotel. She'd recognized the model number and knew that his car had cost him more than she was going to make this year and then some. She wasn't sure just how much his NHL contract was but she had a fair idea. He was twenty two and a millionaire, good looking and famous. There was no way on earth he wasn't taken.

"I am," he shrugged, stopping to pull her into a covered doorway, into the shadows and away from the crowds on the sidewalk. "I told you. I'm not good at this…stuff," he added with a crooked smile that said 'please believe me'. It was hard not to. He looked so fucking earnest with his closely cropped hair, baby smooth cheeks that looked like they might see a razor once a week and his slightly crooked front teeth. "I'm not saying I wasn't trying to pick you up," he added more quietly, his dark eyes doing that mesmerizing thing as his gaze held hers'.

"And I'm not saying I wasn't letting you," she replied, thinking about his mouth and the way he was looking at her and wondering if he was going to kiss her. He looked like he was thinking about it. She didn't want to crave his kiss, but she did.

"Aaargh, not here," he hissed, sending a frustrated glance towards the teeming mass of humanity filling the sidewalk. Giving her hand a squeeze, he turned and led her back out onto the sidewalk, towing her like a tent trailer behind him.

* * *

A few blocks later they were standing on North Lake Shore drive, inches from the water and all of the blood in his body was heading south, fast. He wasn't sure how much longer he was going to be able to stay on his feet. He was definitely light headed and any prospect for improvement was quickly disappearing as her breasts pressed against his chest and her tongue slid and snaked itself around his.

There were people around, not many, but some. Enough that he was sure this would get out that he'd hear about it or read about it somewhere; Jonathan Toews, the young captain of the Hawks seen necking like a schoolboy down on the lakeshore. It wasn't good. It was something he'd been warned about, they'd all been warned about, especially since those pictures of Kaner's night out in Vancouver had gotten splashed all over the net.

This wasn't his thing. He didn't do stuff like this and yet he didn't want to stop.

He threaded his fingers through her thick, dark hair and pulled, tipping her head and baring her long, pale neck. When it came to this kind of thing, his tastes generally ran in the direction of what a lot of the guys called vanilla. He never really went beyond the basic kiss and cuddle and the few relationships he'd had that had actually got to the point of becoming sexual, had never strayed beyond the basic missionary position. He bit into the thin flesh just below her ear and heard her gasp and he liked it. He didn't know what made him do it, but he wanted to do it more and he definitely wanted her to make more sounds like that.

"I know I said I don't do stuff like this," he began breathlessly, sliding his hands up her neck until he was cupping her face like a goblet, "but would you…I mean, do you want to…?" Shit! This kind of crap came so easily to the other guys and yet here he was, blushing and stammering like a junior high kid, like a fucking virgin.

"Yes," she replied immediately, her eyes bright in the moonlight, sparing him the pain of having to actually say the words.

"Yeah?" Jesus Christ he sounded like a boy scout with a boner. She grinned up at him and nodded and he had to restrain himself from hugging her like she'd just given him a fucking birthday present. "My place isn't far."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

He certainly didn't kiss like a virgin, she thought, but after an hour of heated tonsil hockey and dry humping like a couple of teenagers engaging in an adult game of seven minutes in heaven she was beginning to wonder. Not that she objected to being pawed and petted, and she certainly admired his obvious self control, but on the other hand, she felt like she was going to run out of saliva soon and her lips were actually starting to hurt. He was also avoiding certain obvious avenues that would go a long way to moving this whole make out session forward; like the slit up to there on her dress.

Right now his hand was on her thigh but no matter how much she tried to squirm he wouldn't move it, at least not in a northerly direction. Down, yes he would do down, and behind her knee and up again but no farther than half way and it was making Edie just a little bit crazy, especially considering she'd not only removed the tie and the jacket but had his shirt undone as well.

Running the flat of her hand across his massive shoulders, she heard his sharp intake of breath and smiled. So, she wasn't the only one that was having a hard time getting enough oxygen to make her brain work.

She glanced up at him and gave him a wicked smile. Beads of sweat had broken out across his forehead and his lips were slightly parted. He looked…well, frankly, he looked terrified.

'_Oh this is too much fun_' she thought as she kissed and nibbled her way south of his collarbones until she reached the tiny pink peaks of nipples. Experimentally, she flicked her tongue against one hard little bud and then watched as he grimaced. Wondering if that was a good face or a bad face, she drew a warm, wet circle around it, slowly dragging the tip of her tongue around it until he squirmed and made a mewling sound, like a kitten.

'_Ah, good sound_' she decided and then bit down, tugging on the little pink nub while she ran her hand down over his washboard abs to the formidable erection that was straining against the front of his suit pants, practically begging to be set free. His hand fisted in her hair and she had to let go of his nipple or tear it off as he forced her to look up at him, or rather, to meet his kiss as his mouth came crashing down over hers'.

He kissed her like he meant it, like he was trying to force his body through hers', his tongue invading her mouth like a marine hitting the beach, armed and dangerous. She gave his dick a squeeze through his pants and he moaned into her mouth, a sound of pure white flag surrender that made her to pounce on him and stick a flag in the middle of his amazingly sculpted chest and declare his body 'Edietopia'.

Crawling astride his lap, she took control of the high ground, pressing down on his massive shoulders as her tongue parried with his. She felt his hands on her ass and pressed down against them, grinding her drenched panties into his lap at the same time. He moaned into her mouth and lifted his hips, pressing the length and width of his rock hard dick against her and she gasped, knowing she'd do more than that when that monster ripped her in two. She rubbed against him, knowing she could make herself cum just like this, with no more help from him. She wasn't sure how much longer she could wait anyway.

"Are you sure?" he asked breathlessly as she unlocked her lips from his so that she could gasp for breath as the first spasms made her squeeze her eyes shut and swear.

"Sure?" she hissed into his ear, grabbing his hand off of her ass and leading it around to her thigh and pushing it upwards, towards her panties. He pulled back and no amount of pressure on her part could make his hand move. He was too fucking strong. "If you don't fucking do it, I'll sit here and take care of things myself and you can just watch," she promised, her lips just touching the shell of his ear. She felt his entire body shudder beneath hers' and grinned to herself. He was probably picturing her getting her freak on for his benefit. "Oh you like that do you? Do you want me to play with myself while you watch?" She had no intention of doing it. If she was going to have to go to that extreme she was fucking well going to lock herself in the bathroom and use the shower wand.

"Wou…would you?" he stammered, looking up at her with giant bambi eyes. It was a good thing he was cute or she would have climbed off of him then and there and headed for the bathroom.

"Maybe," she purred instead, sliding her hand in between them and stroking it along the impressively hard length of him through his pants, feeling him twitch against her hand. "But I'd rather have you play with me…Captain," she added, running her tongue along her bottom lip before biting down and sucking her lip into her mouth and batting her eyelashes at him coquettishly.

"I'd…I'd like to…I mean I've never watched…." He blushed a deep crimson and Edie found herself staring down at him, unsure if she was amused or pissed off.

"You really want to watch?" he nodded eagerly, his grip on her loosening as she stared down at him. "I must be out of my fucking mind." Edie slid off of his lap and stood, offering her hand. Sitting there with his eyes all wide and this silly grin on his face he made her feel like a cougar preying on a cub. "Well come on then," she snapped, wiggling her fingers at him until he put his warm hand in hers' and then, turning, she lead him to the bedroom.

* * *

'_The guys will never believe this_' was the thought that kept going through his head as Jon watched her peel herself out of the curve hugging dress until she could step out of it, leaving her standing in front of him in absolutely nothing. He wiped at the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand, incase he was actually drooling as he watched her crawl onto the bed beside where he was sitting. Now he understood what Kaner meant that some of the chicks he fucked were girls and some, a few of them, were women. There was nothing girlish about her, he thought as she propped herself among his pillows, some of which, he was suddenly ashamed to realize, were still sporting Blackhawk pillow covers, a joke gift from ex-teammate Andrew Ladd.

Luckily she didn't seem to notice. Her sultry gaze was locked on him as she settled into the nest and then drew her knees up, baring the very centre of her femininity to his greedy gaze. His mouth was dry and he kept licking his lips as he watched her slowly slide her fingers down over her breasts, her smile growing just that little bit as she cupped her breasts and tweaked her nipples between her forefinger and thumb.

His dick ached as he watched her hand slide lower, down between her thighs until she parted her nether lips so that he could see their glimmering pink insides. He glanced up to find her gaze trained on him and he swallowed, with some difficulty before he looked back down, to find her fingers making slow circles over her clit.

He squeezed his dick through his slacks and thought about pulling it out, except he always felt worried about doing that. In his experience, some girls reacted badly when they saw what he was packing. He'd been told more than once that some things were just too big and even a couple of the more willing and adventurous types had taken one look at his trouser snake, grabbed their panties and left.

Of course she'd already grabbed a hold of it and hadn't turned tail yet, not that he wouldn't mind getting a hold of her tail and….

Her fingers dipped into her honey pot and came out gleaming. She held her hand out towards him, offering a taste, and Jon didn't need to be asked twice.

Leaning forward he drew her fingers into his mouth. She tasted sweet, like warm, slightly salty honey. He held her gaze as he licked her fingers clean, and then, as she went to slide her fingers back between her thighs, he gently pushed her hand aside and dove in, spreading her pussy lips wide as he eagerly dove in, tongue digging deep into her honey hole.

He heard her cry out, though the sound was muffled as she pressed her thighs together, essentially putting him into a headlock. Not that he minded at all. This was another thing that those girls that they sometimes picked up at local clubs didn't seem much interested in. They would squeal and squeeze their thighs together and make noises like they were grossed out by the idea. Jonathan was pretty sure he could spend all night giving head if she let him, and by the sounds she was making and the way she was grinding her pussy against his face, he thought she might just do that.

Her fingers were digging into his scalp and he felt her thighs begin to quiver. She was going to cum and that was fine with him. He slid two fingers into her, bending them upward and began to search for that spongy mass of cells, the elusive g-spot that would make her scream. When she raised her hips off of the bed and he felt her fingernails drawing blood from the sides of his head, he made a mental note to thank Sharpie for the advice the next time he saw him.

* * *

The orgasm ripped through her, almost unexpectedly. She felt an electric shock, like a bolt of lightening rip through her, from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet and it made her entire body go rigid. She could feel her fingernails digging into his head but couldn't stop herself from doing it. She clenched her teeth but the scream escaped anyway, like jagged glass ripping through her throat and heard herself calling out his name.

It took her a few minutes to catch her breath, not that he was waiting for her to come down all the way. He was lapping, albeit slowly, at her clit. She almost wanted to ask him to stop, to take a god damn break so she could get her bearings. Almost, but not quite. Now that he'd finally shed the leave it beaver image and was getting nasty, she wasn't really that eager for him to stop, especially considering, once she wasn't seeing stars anymore, she realized that he was actually spelling out words with his tongue.

S…L…A…P…S…H…O…T

"Son of a bitch, you're playing hockey word games on my pussy?" she panted, staring down the line of her body only to have him look up at her with a shit eating grin.

"Yeah," he raised his eyebrows and added a third finger inside of her. "Want me to stop?"

"Hellllll noooo," she moaned, tipping her head back and grabbing hold of the thick down comforter, twisting it in her fists as she held on for dear life.

P…E…N…A…L…T…Y…S…H…O…T

F…A…C…E…O…F…F

F…I…V…E…M…I…N…U…T…E…S…F…O…R…

"Ohhhhhhhhh myyyyyyyyy gooooddddd!" Edie screamed and arched her back off the bed as the second orgasm made her feel like her body was being ripped in two, in the best possible way. She was still gulping for air and watching black spots dance in front of her eyes when she felt his hands on her thighs, forcing them farther apart. "Are you kidding you've got to let me…." Her voice trailed away to nothing as she looked down at the long, thick hard rod of his cock pointing at her opening. "Jesus Christ it's the mother ship," she murmured appreciatively, though a hint of apprehension made her voice sound higher than usual.

"Say if you want me to stop," he told her wearing his Captain Serious face and Edie believed that he meant it. If she asked, if she said no, he would stop because, after all, like Don Cherry said, Jonathan Toews is a good Canadian kid.

Instead of giving him the verbal go ahead, she merely reached down, curled her fingers around as much of the one eyed monster as she could and guided the ocean liner into dock. She watched him edge his way in, as if he thought she'd suddenly tell him to stop, to back out. Or maybe he was waiting for the spot in her body that would say it for her. Either way, as he pushed her knees back towards her body, she took him, and took him until her eyes rolled back in her head when he finally slid home and reached a spot no other man had ever touched inside of her.

"Holy sheeeeeeeeeit!" she gasped, once more digging her fingers into the quilt as her body squeezed his in welcome. He answered with a gasp of his own, and when she looked up, he was looking at her like she'd just performed some kind of miraculous open heart surgery, like a boy looks at his hero, like kids probably looked up at him.

"Is it…is it okay?" he asked and Edie couldn't help but chuckle.

"Okay?" she breathed, trying to figure out how to tell him that she felt like she was impaled on a railway tie. "Yeah, it's completely o….oh god." He moved. It was just a slight rotation of his hips and his mighty thighs but it was enough to send her already sensitive and highly aroused body into convulsions of ecstasy. He smiled then, that sort of crooked smile that was his very own and said that not only was he very happy, but that he was on new and rarely trod ground. "You weren't lying when you said you don't do this often," she gasped as he threw one of her legs over his shoulder so he could press the flat of his hand against her pelvic bone, pushing it down so that it and she squeezed even tighter around him.

"No," he smiled at her as he pulled his hips back and then made a stronger, faster thrust forward that stole all of the air from her lungs. "I wasn't lying," he added, rotating his hips as he pulled her other leg up so that her ankles were resting on his massive shoulders, "and no, I really don't get to do _this," _he emphasized the word with a shallow but sharp thrust that made Edie whimper as the head of his cock slid against her g-spot, "nearly enough."

* * *

He almost came. The moment he'd slid into her hot, wet tunnel, he'd almost lost control. It had only been the breathing exercises taught to him by teammates who'd gone to the big show before, guys like Ladd and Hossa, that had helped him get past the first, breathless moment when everything had gone star filter and he'd got lightheaded and felt like he was going to pass out. It was a heady combination of her pale, curvaceous body spilled out on his red sheets like some kind of Maxim wet dream along with the fact that all the blood in his body was now in cock.

As it was, he wasn't going to last. He'd already been dealing with this hard on for the better part of two hours and the sight and smell of her was better than anything he'd imagined since the moment he'd laid eyes on her. Still, he didn't want to send her back to Vancouver thinking that the Captain of the Hawks was anything less than a gentleman and a gentleman never sent a lady home unsatisfied.

Having her ankles on his shoulder and her long, shapely legs pressed against his torso, Jon began to use his strength and her current position as leverage, pulling her hips off of the bed and making long, deep strokes that alternatively made her pant and whimper. Those were good sounds, to be sure, but what he wanted was for this sexy Canucks fan to beg. He wanted her to beg for the Captain of the Hawks to give her release. Only then would he allow himself the pleasure of draining his balls deep inside her tunnel of love.

_Shit_! Now he was sounding like Kaner.

Jon almost laughed, and his thoughts must have shown on his face because her expression went from almost blissful to quizzical in a second. He tried to overcome hearing Kaner's egotistical ramblings in his head, but the more he tried, the more bullshit he heard and the harder it was not to laugh. Finally she squirmed out of his grasp and further up into the pillows where she sat with her legs tucked up and her arms crossed over her generous chest and scowled.

She should have looked like a temperamental child but instead she looked beautiful, albeit stubborn, what with her mussed sex hair and her body misted by the faint gleam of sweat. He knelt there, staring at her, still trying not to laugh and admiring her all at once until she picked up on of his pillows, one of the ones with the Indian head logo on it, and tossed it at him, with force.

"What the fuck is so fucking funny?" she snapped, and now she did look a little more like a petulant child about to throw a tantrum.

"I'm sorry," he apologized honestly, crawling up the bed so he could mould himself to her back, pulling her shoulders back towards him and kissing her neck. "I was...I had this stupid thought in my head." He didn't want to bring Pat into this. She hated Pat, that much was clear and he was really hoping the moment wasn't ruined and talking about his curly haired teammate would likely cool her jets entirely. "I just want to make sure you don't go back to Vancouver thinking that a Hawks player hasn't got it."

She was entirely still in his arms for a moment and then her shoulders began to shake, followed by the sound of barely stifled laughter and then she grabbed a pillow and threw herself face down into it and howled.

It was his turn to feel put out. It was funny, granted, Jon thought, just not _that_ funny. He sat there, silent, while she slammed her fists into the mattress, kicked and laughed until she finally looked up at him, tears streaming down her face.

"What?" he snapped, all feelings of romance having fled while he watched her laugh, _at_ him. She smiled, and sort of hiccupped and then scrambled to a seated position, hugging one of those damn pillows to her chest.

"I'm sorry it's just...you're so fucking competitive. As far as I know sex isn't a competitive sport and it's not like I'm about to admit to any 'Nucks players to doing this. I mean...I don't even know any of them so... Oh c'mon you're Captain Serious so of course you'd turn a one night stand into a fucking Olympic event and of course you'd win the gold medal for it too," she added with a grin as she tipped her head to one side so that all of her dark hair cascaded over her shoulder. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at you but...that is _kinda_ funny, right?"

Jonathan had to admit that, when put that way, it was fairly humorous. The guys would laugh, if he told them, which he wouldn't, at least not about this part. He'd especially never tell Pat. If he did, he'd never hear the end of it.

Fortunately, the moment of frivolity was over and the way her hair was catching the light from the moon that was streaming through the window had returned his thoughts to things more carnal and as he reached out to rake his fingers through it, she caught his wrist in her hand and pressed her lips to the inside of his arm. Flames shot across his skin and his cock pulsed and no, that had not gone down, even when she laughing.

He was still a little angry and hurt that she'd laughed at him, and he used that emotion like he would heading back onto the ice after a bad first period. He grabbed her, turned her to face the headboard and pressed her hands to the wrought iron bars. He watched while her fingers curled around the twisted metal, and then he knelt behind her, pushing her feet apart with his knees while he nudged his cock back into her molten core.

She threw her head back, all of that hair falling into his face and she sighed. That was a good sound, a very good sound, he thought, as he slid his hands around to cup her breasts, feeling her nipples harden in his palms as he began to move within her in slow, even thrusts.

He couldn't quite find the end of her, like he had before. Not from this angle. But this angle had it's own advantages. She was tight, tighter this way and the pressure of her muscles squeezing around his dick as she tried to accommodate him made his head swim. He really wasn't going to last now.

He slid one hand up and tipped her head back further, so he could capture her mouth. He kissed her, or at least he kissed some of her mouth as he pushed himself up inside of her. He could feel the walls of her pussy tightening around him and he knew she was getting close. 'Her first' he told himself firmly as his other hand slid down, down over the slight curve of her stomach, down over the smooth mound with its' small neat 'v' of dark hair and into her crease until he found that hard little pearl. He pressed his fingers to it and her entire body shuddered. She whispered his name and he pressed harder, using his thighs and the bounce of the mattress to force himself into her, harder, deeper.

She cried out, her body beginning to tremble as her juices made her core slippery and warm. It was only because she was tight, so tight, from this angle that he could stay inside of her. He felt his balls constrict as she reached around and dug her fingernails into his ass, pushing him, trying to make him go deeper. He locked one arm around her waist and pressed his fingers to her clit in the same small circles she had made with her own fingers and he felt her pussy clench, hard and then everything went black and he was roaring her name to the night.


	4. Chapter 4

_Sorry for the wait, and sorry this is kinda short, but it's all smut so there ya go_

**Chapter 4**

"Where are you going?" His grip tightened around her waist and Edie chuckled at the sleepy sound of his voice, muffled by his face being pressed into her hair.

"I'm hungry," she replied tersely, "someone took me from the party before I got fed." An answering growl came from his stomach and she laughed again. With a groan, he slid from her side and turned on the light on his side of the bed. She watched him walk across the room, unable to tear her gaze away from his long, thick and muscular legs.

He pulled open a drawer and pulled out a pair of gym shorts and tugged them on. Then he pulled out a red t-shirt with the Hawks logo on the middle of it and tossed it in her direction. Edie pulled it over her head and then slid from his king sized bed and followed him out into the dark hallway.

"Please tell me you're not like every other bachelor I know. Please tell me there's actual food in this house," she called after him and heard his answering laughter echoing in the hall ahead of her.

"There's food. I'm just not sure you'll like any of it." Edie grimaced, visions of protein powder shakes and energy bars filling her head. As she rounded the corner into what could easily have passed for a professional kitchen in any high end Michelin star restaurant, she was pleasantly surprised to find him slicing a banana into a bowl that was sitting next to a tub of vanilla ice cream.

"I didn't think a professional athlete would eat this kind of stuff," she said admiringly as she picked up the can of aerosol whip cream and tipped it into her mouth.

"We don't, as a rule, but when you have to replenish your energy supplies quickly," he grinned sideways at her and Edie felt her heart stop beating altogether, "you do what you have to do". 'Oh so not fair' she thought as she watched him squeeze a healthy dose of butterscotch sauce over the sliced bananas and then tip the bottle into his mouth. 'He's so fucking hot and he doesn't even know it'.

A thin line of the sticky, sweet topping dribbled out of the corner of his mouth and without even thinking about it, Edie scooped the trickle of sugary goodness onto her forefinger and stuck it in her mouth, sucking it clean.

His eyes got big and Edie nearly laughed as she watched that crooked grin of his fade into an expression that reminded her of the first guy she'd ever been with, like it was his first time seeing a girl naked. Just to see how far she could press it, she grabbed the can of whip cream and his arm and sprayed a line of the white frothy stuff from his wrist to the inside of his elbow and then, holding his gaze the entire time, slowly licked his arm clean. Then, still holding his wrist, she upended the squeeze bottle of chocolate sauce and covered each finger with a drizzle of thick fudge and then very slowly drew each of his digits into her mouth and, one after the other, sucked them clean.

Making a sound deep in his throat, Jon lifted her onto the counter and, stepping between her thighs, kissed her...hard.

* * *

He could hear his mom in his head, something about not playing with his food. He told the voice to fuck off as he sprayed a line of whip cream up her neck and licked it off. She giggled, running her hands through his hair, wrapping her legs around his waist. This woman, Christ, this woman...

He pushed the t-shirt up and she took it off the rest of the way, lifting her arms, raising her ripe tits to his mouth. He tossed the t-shirt somewhere on the floor and reached for the butterscotch sauce, dripping it down over her collarbone, down to her nipples. She dug her fingernails into his head as he licked her pale, ivory skin clean.

She gasped as he sucked her nipple into his mouth, sliding his tongue over the hard little bump. The sticky sauce was good, her flesh was sweeter.

Chocolate sauce next. He dribbled it down between her breasts, down to her stomach. Taking his time, he licked slowly upwards. She shivered as his hands slid up her ribcage, goose bumps racing over her skin as he cupped her breasts, lifting them to his mouth. He heard the hiss of the aerosol and then tasted whip cream as his mouth found her nipple again.

His cock strained against his shorts. He wanted to plunge it into her warm, wet tunnel. He also wanted to taste every inch of her flesh. She gasped as he closed his teeth on her nipple and tugged. It was a good sound. It made his cock even harder.

He let go of her nipple and reached for the jar of maraschino cherries. He opened it with a single twist and then drew one of the too sweet bright red fruits out and put it in his mouth. She grinned and licked her lips as he leaned towards her. He kissed her, letting the cherry roll back in his mouth and then slid it onto her tongue.

She chewed it as he watched, as he took another cherry from the jar and, holding it between his forefinger and thumb, rubbed it slowly around her nipple, staining the already pink flesh darker. He licked away the sweet juice and then repeated the motion while she squirmed.

Her flesh was sweet but he knew there was something even sweeter he hadn't tasted yet. She'd put the can of whip cream down. He grabbed it and, taking a knee, sprayed a healthy amount of it on her inner thigh. He heard her swear. He liked the sound of it as he ran his tongue slowly up her thigh, stopping just short of his goal before repeating his actions on the other side.

He heard her whimper and felt her trying to grab a hold of what little hair there was on the top of his head. If he'd been Kaner, she'd have been in luck. As it was what she managed to get her hands on was mostly his ears and that had to stop. Sliding his hands beneath her, he pulled her to the very edge of the counter and that did it. With a squeak of surprise, her hands were off of his ears and trying to get purchase in his granite countertops.

With a satisfied grin, Jon ran his tongue up her slit, tasting her juices as they poured onto his tongue. This was a better desert than any banana split, he decided as he teased her clit with his tongue. She was starting to make those noises again, those barely strangled cries that made his cock ache to be where his tongue was now, diving as deeply into her as he could. He could wait though, he knew, until he'd made her cum for him.

With that in mind, he slid his thumb inside of her, taking the place of his tongue and went back to work on her clit, humming some song he'd heard earlier until he felt her hand on the back of his head as her thighs began to quiver. He could tell she was clenching her teeth and he could hear her other hand scratching at the cupboard door behind her head. She was close, but he wasn't done. Far from it.

Reaching for the can of whip cream, he covered her pussy in the cool whipped topping and began to slowly and strategically lap it up. He was going to have to do some extra wind sprints to make up for all this, or maybe he would just work it all off later.

* * *

"I. Am. Coming!" Edie threw her head back and howled as she felt the muscles in her pussy clench around his fingers. Her entire body felt like a bow string that had been pulled tight and then suddenly let go. She felt like she was vibrating, like maybe if she looked in the mirror she'd actually look like Wile. E Coyote when he stepped on a rake and hit himself with it. "Holy mother of...Jesus H...Wait, what are you doing?" He was stepping out of his shorts and he was shaking the can of whip cream very slowly in one hand and smiling and not in that cut boyish sort of way either.

"I thought you might want to return the favour," he grinned, aiming the nozzle of the can at the head of his cock and pressing down. Edie watched with a certain amount of fascination as he squeezed a perfect line of the white desert topping down the length of his dick. "You did say you were hungry, right?" he asked, the boyish grin showing through as he looked across at her.

"Well I guess I did," she giggled, slipping down off of the counter and onto her knees, rolling her eyes up at him and licking her lips. "Got any of that chocolate sauce?"

He looked over at the squeeze bottle and then down at her and then silently handed it to her. Licking her lips again, she dripped some on the head of his cock and the slowly licked her way around it, listening to him groan as she did. A little more chocolate sauce dribbled along the length of him and then she put the bottle aside and slid as much of him into her mouth as she could, one hand cradling his balls, one hand digging into his muscular thigh.

His scrotum was already tight. She knew he wasn't going to last so she was going to make the most of it. She was going to drive him crazy.

Edie dug her nails into his thigh and heard draw in a sharp breath between his teeth. She rolled her eyes up to look at his face. He was making his serious face, his face off face. Continuing to watch his expression, Edie slid her hand up to his ass and then slowly raked her nails down the solid pale flesh.

"Sheeeeeit!" he cursed, tipping his head back and blowing out a long expulsion of air. Rolling his balls in her hand, she gave him a moment to recover and then, as he turned his attention back to her, looking down at her, she dug her nails into his scrotal sac and pulled down. "Ohhhh fuuuuck!" His eyes got wide but he didn't ask her to stop and if anything, his dick got harder. Smiling up at him around his dick, Edie wrapped her hand tightly around the base of him and guided him to the back of her throat, took a breath through her nose and then slid him over the back of her tongue and down her throat. "Holy shit!" he breathed as he dug his fingers into her hair and held her there until she started to gag. "I'm...I'm sorry," he stammered, looking all boyish again.

"I'm not," she grinned up at him before licking a gleaming drop of pre-cum from the tip of his cock. Licking the length of the underside of his dick, she smiled up at him and then slid his cock over her tongue and began to work it, sucking and licking it while he tried to breathe. She watched him fight for control but she wouldn't let him control this. She wanted to see Captain Serious lose it and she wanted him to lose it in her mouth.

"Fuck me god damn motherfucker!" he cursed, both of his hands on the back of her head, forcing her mouth down over the full length of him. She took him all and felt his cock throb right before the creamy salty goodness filled the back of her throat. She licked him clean and then he helped her to her feet, looking sheepish.

"I uh...I have some strawberries or something in the fridge," he stammered, his cheeks turning pink as he reached for the fridge door.

"Mmm, strawberries, what are you going to do with that," she asked, licking her lips.

"They're for...well the...you know, the taste," he continued to stammer as he peered into the fridge, frantically opening and closing crisper drawers. Edie leaned against the counter and watched his frenetic activity, amused. "Or there's...you can use my toothbrush or something," he continued, cursing under his breath as he pulled out jug after jug of Gatorade and lined them up on the counter like some kind of gay coalition of tubby little soldiers.

"I'm good, actually, unless you're worried about kissing me now," she laughed, grabbing one of the jugs and twisting the top off. He looked at her over the top of the fridge, eyes still round, cheeks still the colour of cotton candy. "It's not chocolate but it's not that bad, honestly," she told him before taking a swig of the supposedly grape flavoured electrolyte replenishing juice. It was clear on his face that he didn't believe her. "Let me guess. All your little puck fucks refuse to swallow?" He nodded silently and she grinned back at him. "Oh my, how will you ever go back to those silly little cunts?"

"Honestly?" he sighed, shutting the fridge door, "I don't know." He closed the space between them and tipped her lips up to his. "And damn you for making me have to."


	5. Chapter 5

_this is pretty short but I wanted to put something up for those of you eating too much turkey and not having any hockey to watch. _

**Chapter 5**

_There's something about a man washing your hair_, Edie thought as she leaned back against him, her eyes closed and a blissful smile on her face as he ran his fingers through her hair distributing the green apple scented shampoo more evenly than she would have herself. It wasn't just that he was washing her hair, she decided, or even how gently he was doing it. It was that just him. He was that sweet and that considerate. _Beats the hell out of the last few guys I've dated_, she sighed.

"Sorry, did that hurt?" he asked, his fingers pausing mid rake, as if he'd caught them on a tangle, of which there were a few considering how sticky his fingers had been with whip cream and various other sweet and sticky desert topping when he'd wrapped her hair around his hand to fuck her mouth. She smiled at the memory, mostly at the half surprised half shocked look on his face when she'd deep throated him.

"No," she replied with a contented little groan, "not at all. It's good, really good." She felt him chuckle more than heard it, a quick rise and fall of his chest against her back as his fingers recommenced their slow, gently movements through her hair_. I could get used to this_, she thought as he began to dig his fingers more firmly into her scalp, making slow circles at her temples and behind her ears, massaging the shampoo in, _it's a good thing I only have one more day in the windy city._ That thought was quickly followed by an uneasy churning of her stomach, which she told herself was just the mixture of all the sugar she'd just consumed with all of the alcohol she'd downed before. _Funny_, she thought, _I don't feel drunk but I must be to fuck Jonathan Toews, right? _

That thought was quickly forgotten as he turned her and backed her under the shower head, removing the wand and moving it deliberately around her head, rinsing the suds away. He'd warned her to keep her eyes closed but Edie found herself looking up at his thoughtful expression, finding herself smiling at the concentration that made him frown as he dragged the fingers of one hand through her hair while the other hand followed with the shower wand. _He's never done this before_, she realized with a certain amount of satisfaction that made her smile, _but he's doing it for me._

She continued to watch him silently as he sorted through a number of bottles he'd retrieved from beneath the sink, looking for conditioner which she was sure he probably never used. Not that there was anything wrong with his hair, specifically, but from what she'd seen in the medicine cabinet and the lack of scented soaps or bath oils in the tray next to the big Jacuzzi tub next to the shower they stood in, she had deduced that there were no regular female visitors to his place, not even his mother.

"I knew I had one!" he announced with a grin that frankly made his eyes look a little...well, crazed. "It's just a trial size...probably stole it from a hotel or something," he added, holding up the bottle like it was some kind of prize. It made her think of his gold medal, made her wonder where he kept it, if he even kept it here. It was probably in a safety deposit box or maybe he'd given it to his parents. "What?" he asked, his hand pausing with the cap half twisted off.

"I don't know," she felt herself blush as she looked up into his face. "You're just...cute I guess." The grin he'd just been wearing that said 'I'm proud of myself' disappeared, to be replaced by something softer, less focussed as he bent to kiss her.

He still tasted like whip cream and butterscotch, she thought as his mouth moved over hers' and his tall muscular body pressed her to the river rock tiled wall. She heard the trial sized bottle of conditioner hit the pebbled floor and briefly wondered if all of it was going to end up being washed down the drain. Not that she cared as his tongue swept around hers and his cock sprang to attention, pressing eagerly against her stomach.

_I am so not going to be able to walk tomorrow _she thought as his strong arms lifted her off her feet and his rigid phallus plunged into her moist cleft, pinning her to the wall. She gasped into his mouth as she wrapped her arms around his thick neck, her nails digging into the back of his head as her thighs tightened around his hips.

* * *

He felt the heat of the shower on his back but mostly he felt the warm, wet heat of her cunt around his dick as he pushed it into her as far as it would go. He felt her nails digging into the back of his head and he thought it should hurt, but it didn't. The little pin pricks of pain heightened all of the other sensations he was feeling, the pressure in his balls that made him feel like his sack was going to explode any second and the tightening of her muscles around his cock as he adjusted her weight in his hands.

_Maybe it's a good thing she doesn't live here_, he told himself as he breathlessly kissed her neck, _or I'd never be able to play, I'd always be balls deep in her_. He'd never been one for passing the time in hotels on the road with random puck fucks like Kaner and Sharpie and some of the other guys did. Oh he'd done it, every once in a while, but he'd never really felt very good about himself afterwards. He hadn't been raised to use women that way. He'd always woken up with a guilty conscience and the feeling that he would have had more fun playing cards or X-box or something. _I won't feel like that this time_, he knew as he rammed himself into her as far as he could, listening to her gasp as their hips met with a wet slapping sound.

Now he could understand why Kaner would risk the wrath of Quenneville for a night with certain girls. He thought of every time he'd shaken his head at his shorter, mop haired teammate and Pat had just smirked and taken the Coach's abusive language. He'd gladly take it for another night like this, he thought as captured her mouth again and drove himself into her, nailing her to the wall. He ignored the fact that the river rock that made up the wall of his shower was grazing his knuckles, that his hands would look like he'd gone ten rounds with some guy's helmet by morning. He'd gladly explain why and he'd probably wear the same smirk Kaner did when he strolled in late for practice wearing a myriad of love bites.

Speaking of which, Jon kissed his way down to where her pulse beat wildly in her neck. She tasted clean, like ivory soap and vaguely of the apple shampoo he'd used on her hair as he bit down on her neck, his teeth digging in until she cried out and he felt her nails rip into his back, tearing at his flesh and making him roar in pain. The pain only lasted a moment though as the star filled haze of another orgasm hit him and he roared again as he emptied his balls into her. He didn't think he'd have anything left and yet jet after jet of cum poured out of him as the walls of her pussy milked him dry.

"Holy...holy shit," she whimpered as he put her back on her feet, though he still held onto her, as much to keep himself up as her. His legs and his heart felt like he'd just done an hour's worth of wind sprints. "You should bottle that shit," she coughed as her arms slid from around his neck, "and let me take that home with me."

"Are you trying to say that I'm good?" he asked, bending to retrieve the bottle of conditioner and placing her under the spray again and dumping the cream coloured liquid into his hand and working it into her hair.

"Not if it's going to swell your head and turn you into Patrick Kane," she replied with an impish grin, slipping her arms around his waist and pulling him toward her. He hissed as the water hit his back, telling him she'd left her mark on him as well. He'd have to remind himself to wear whatever scars she left him with as a badge of honour and not let all the ribbing he was going to take from the guys bug him. Kane would be the worst... "What are you thinking about?" He blinked and looked down at her. She was frowning as she looked up at him, her gaze searching his.

"Just...," he wondered about telling her the truth and then decided he had nothing to lose. After all, she was going to be gone tomorrow so what did it really matter if she knew that the other guys thought he was kind of a geek? "Just wondering what the other guys will say, y'know, when Kaner tells them I went home with some...," he started to say girl, but stopped himself. She was no girl, definitely not. "With a beautiful, sexy woman," he completed his thought and watched her roll her eyes at him.

"Why?" she asked, letting him tip her head back to rinse the conditioner from her hair. "Don't you do this all the time?" Being well aware of the rep that professional athletes have when it comes to women, he wasn't surprised by the question, just that she asked it of him, after what they'd already done, and what he already had told her, but when he reached to turn off the water he saw her gaze following him in a way that said she wanted to hear she was special, different. He had no problem telling her that she was.

"No," he told her truthfully, wrapping her warm body in his arms and slipping his hands down over her shapely ass. "I don't do this a lot. Hardly at all to be honest and I've never," he kissed the tip of her nose, "ever," and corner of her mouth, "been lucky enough to be with someone like you."

"You've already gotten in my pants, you don't have to keep sucking up to me," she laughed and Jonathan tried to laugh too, but the feel of her quickly cooling, wet body pressed to his somehow made laughter nearly impossible.

"I was just hoping to get you to stay...the night," he quickly added, forcing a smile on his face that he hoped looked charming and harmless and not at all as desperate and clinging as he was feeling right at that moment.

"Well you haven't fed me yet and by that I mean real food," she added with a playful grin, giving his ass a smack, "so if you promise to feed me..."

"There's a place not too far away, an all night diner," he said, maybe a little too hastily but she didn't seem to notice. She smiled and looked interested. "I think I probably have something one of my sister's left behind somewhere that you could wear...," she raised a single eyebrow like she didn't believe him but he just shrugged and reached up to pull down two oversize towels. "I have sisters, okay? Honest."

"For some reason I believe you," she said as he wrapped her in one of the plush towels and began to rub her hair with the other. "That must be one of the reasons they call you Captain Serious," she added as he finished drying her hair, or as much as he could with that towel before he draped it over her shoulders like a cape and reached for the last towel on the warming rack. "You're not a real fibber are you?" she asked, huddling in the towel as he tucked the end of the towel in at his waist.

"Nope and I kinda suck at poker too," he told her, grinning when she rolled her eyes.

"Hmmm, good to know," she mused as he lead her back to the bedroom while he tried to remember where his sister may have left her laundry.


	6. Chapter 6

_Okay this chapter got a little long but hopefully it's still good..._

**Chapter 6**

"You're really going to eat all that?" Edie asked, pausing with a curly fry halfway to her lips. Jonathan looked down at the four burgers in front of him and then back up at her, wearing that boyish grin of his that made it nearly impossible for her to remember that he was actually older than he looked, especially with mustard leaking from the corner of his mouth and ketchup dotting his cheek. He was cute...damned cute and watching him eat, something she didn't normally like to do and not because it was rude but because most men she knew tended to scoop food into their mouths with both hands and chew with their mouths full like the Neanderthals they are. For some reason, watching him eat was different.

"I have to replace the calories I've lost," he explained with a shrug before taking another enormous bite out of the double bacon cheeseburger that sent grease streaming down his chin. Edie shook her head and popped the fry into her mouth, fighting the urge to lean across the table and wipe off the trails of grease and mustard, while he chewed contentedly. Glancing around at the late night...well, early morning crowd of mostly teenagers and college kids she realized that they fit in, wearing their t-shirts and him in his gym shorts and her in a pair of army drab clam diggers, which was probably why no one was watching Jonathan Toews chow down on half a dozen burgers like he'd just escaped from a concentration camp. Edie looked longingly at thick cut apple wood smoked bacon peeking out of one of the burgers. She'd made the mistake of thinking there was no way she could put grease into her system in the early hours of the morning, but now the fries that she'd ordered weren't exactly filling her up and the more she stared at his food, the more her stomach began to growl, loudly. "You want one?" he asked, looking at her over his burger. Caught, Edie blushed and nodded.

"I should have just ordered one when you did but...," she shrugged and reached for her purse, which he'd told her to leave at the apartment. He'd paid for everything, merely making a face when she'd reached for her change purse to pay for her large diet coke and fries.

"I'll get you one." He made the same face, the '_you're kidding, right_?' face and, putting his burger down, wiped his hands along his ribs, smearing grease and mustard on his t-shirt as he got to his feet. Edie laughed and shook her head, but he didn't seem to notice. She watched him jog up to the long counter behind which two older waitresses were gossiping while they made coffee and then she reached for her phone. Counting on her fingers she was almost sure that her roommate back home would be awake and if not already on her way to the gym, at least heading out the door.

Edie texted Mia, just to be sure. _You up? _

It only took a moment for Mia to text back. _Yep, heading out to gym. Y R U up?_

Edie hit the speed dial and waited impatiently for her friend to pick up. Firstly, Mia was never going to believe this and secondly she didn't know how to explain what she was doing in short enough sentences to text.

"_What is it? Like two? Two thirty there?"_ Mia didn't say hello, which wasn't unusual. Edie still laughed.

"Yeah, something like that. Look, I know you aren't supposed to talk about shit like this but...at work...what do you know about Jonathan Toews?" There was silence on the other end of the line and Edie pictured her friend holding her phone out in front of her and staring at it, quizzically. Edie hated the Hawks, everyone knew that, but especially Mia, who worked in the front office of the Vancouver Canucks. Her job was one of the reasons that Edie had taken her in as a roommate. It had turned out there were a lot of rules about Mia could and couldn't talk about as far as the players were concerned, but it also turned out that she could get tickets to games _a lot_. It was a decent trade off.

"_Not a lot_," Mia replied after a long pause and Edie could hear the hesitation in her friend's voice. "_Why_?"

"You're not about to step out into traffic or anything are you?" Edie could hear traffic in the background so she knew she couldn't tell Mia to sit down while she told her this.

"_Just about_," Mia admitted. "_What's going on? You got Windy City fever or something_? _I know they say the restaurants there are good but_..."

"I slept with him," Edie hissed into her phone. A moment ago she had known her friend was walking, by the sound of the traffic and other voices in the background. Now, there was only silence.

"_Him? Edie...when you say him, do you mean Jonathan Toews? __**The**__ Jonathan Toews?"_ Mia's voice was low and Edie knew that she'd stopped, moved out of the path of other pedestrians and was probably leaning against a building talking directly into the phone in the hushed tone she saved for when she was at work and telling Edie something she shouldn't.

"Yeah," Edie admitted, her gaze still pinned to his broad shoulders as he waited for her burger while his cooled in front of her. "I'm sitting, kind of uncomfortably, in an all night diner wearing his sister's clothes while he's ordering me a burger, and Mia...I can't believe I'm saying this," she winced as she the words popped into her head before she said them, "I really like him...I mean, a lot."

"_Okay, okay...back the fuck up. Are you trying to tell me that you've actually been fucking the Jonathan Toews, the captain of your sworn enemy_?" Now Mia sounded amused and that made Edie roll her eyes. "_Did someone put a gun to your head? Threaten to behead your cat or something?" _

"Yeah, yeah ha ha, very funny. Just...what do you know about him? I mean...is he...fuck, I can't believe I'm asking this fucking question but...do you know if he's supposed to be shacked up with anyone?" He turned and grinned at her and waved and Edie felt herself beaming back at him. '_Damn, damn, damn!'_ she thought. _'You don't even know him. Stop doing that!_'

"_Well first of all, he doesn't have a sister. Kane's the one with the sisters so, I don't know whose clothes your wearing but I'm kinda guessing that he's not as innocent as he looks_, _but no, I've never heard anything about anyone serious_." Edie could tell Mia was walking again. She could also tell that her friend was finding all of this terribly amusing; however, the smile had disappeared from her own face. Mia was saying something now about how the whole Hawks team, like the Pens, were known for being made up of real party animals but Edie hardly heard a word her friend was saying. She was looking down at the plain gray t-shirt and green pedal pushers and imagining the last girl who might have worn them. "_Ede's you there_?"

"Yeah, I just...," she looked up at him and felt a pain in her chest. "Fuck...I am so stupid," she muttered, grabbing her purse and sliding sideways to get out of the booth. "Never mind okay Mia, just...please don't tell anyone I told you," she hissed into the phone, before folding it shut as she headed for the door, head down, avoiding the curious looks she was getting as she pushed the doors of the diner open and headed into the night, alone.

* * *

Jon returned to the table to find the booth empty. He looked around the restaurant, expecting to see her emerging from the bathroom or maybe even just from getting a breath of air, but in all of the faces he scanned, he didn't find hers'. He looked down at the burger on the plate in his hand and at the burgers he'd left on the table and then looked around again.

"Excuse me," he turned to the pair of cops who had slid into the booth behind where he'd been sitting, "did you see the girl that was sitting here? Did she go to the washroom?" he asked, realizing that he sounded hopeful, his voice going up in pitch as he realized that he was feeling panicked. He immediately told himself that it was stupid to think like that, that no one was going to have kidnapped her right in front of a pair of the Windy City's finest but...

"Yeah kid," the older of the two officers smiled indulgently at him as he put down his cup of coffee beside his plate of apple pie. "I think she went outside to take a call." Jon smiled at the officer, immediately feeling relieved, and then turned his gaze out of the windows that looked onto the street.

"Nah, she took a call and she didn't like whatever she heard and then she left," the younger officer, the one who had his back to their booth said and then looked up at Jon with a '_them's the breaks_' sort of half smile. "Sorry 'bout that kid, but I think she scrammed on you."

Part of Jon wanted to argue. The other part dropped the plate with the burger on it onto the table beside his uneaten ones and headed for the doors of the diner at a run.

Pushing the doors open, he scanned the mostly empty street. There was a guy on the corner wearing one of those MIA baseball hats, sitting on a piece of cardboard with an empty coffee cup with a few nickels and dimes in it. He hoped one of the waitresses would give the guy his burgers, but he didn't have time to dig in his shorts for change now.

There was a group of young guys, college kids by the look of their sweatshirts and jeans, talking and laughing and something about the look of them made something twist in Jon's stomach. A woman shouldn't be out walking alone at the witching hour on the streets of Chicago. Maybe in Vancouver you could do that but here...?

A group of younger, tougher looking guys, a mixture of Hispanics and African American men were on the opposite corner, cat calling a group of girls in a car stopped at the light. Jon cursed under his breath and scanned the block again. Whatever had made her leave could not be important enough to get herself killed. Whatever it had been she should have come and got him.

_Think_, he told himself as he looked up the block the way they'd come from his apartment. She could go there, he thought, but then dismissed that idea. If she'd gotten an emergency call, she wouldn't go back for a costume. She'd probably head straight for...

Back to her hotel!

Cab... Jon scanned the streets and saw none. If she'd had time to call one, it wouldn't be here yet. If she grabbed a cab off of the street...

"Sir," digging in his pocket for his wallet, he pulled out a five and held it out toward the guy sitting on the cardboard. "Did you see a girl, about this tall," he held his hand out half way up his chest, "brown hair in a t-shirt and...and..." He couldn't think what he'd found her to wear, a t-shirt, yes but what else? "Did she get in a cab or...," he hated the idea but, "did she get into someone's car?" His voice rose as the panic that was making his pulse go through the roof made his chest tighten. The guy looked at the five and then smiled up at him.

"You two have a fight?" the guy asked, taking the five and making it disappear into one of the many pockets of his jacket. Jon stared at him, shaking his head. "Well looked like she was mad 'bout somethin'," the guy said with a shrug as he pointed West, down the street. "Headed that way, walkin' pretty fast."

Walking? Was she insane?

"Thanks," Jon mumbled before he turned to take off down the street at a run.

"Hey, thank you!" the guy called after him and Jon thought he might have waved back, maybe not, he wasn't sure. All he was sure of was that he had to find Edie before she was kidnapped, dragged off of the street, raped, tortured and ended up as a corpse on CSI.

* * *

_Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

Edie wrapped her arms around herself and cursed through her teeth. This had been a one night stand. That was all. She'd let her brain and her imagination get ahead of her and now she felt like an idiot for letting her heart get involved in something that was clearly only physical.

_So what_, she told herself firmly, that he was hung like a horse and for a change knew what to do with it. So what if he was funny and cute? He was still who he was and she was still Edie Campbell, nothing more, nothing less. They were never going to be a couple.

_He lives in fucking Chicago for fuck's sakes_, she told herself, bitter laughter filling her head that sounded like it was coming from Halloween themed carnival ride. _What did you think was going to happen? That he was going to propose to you after one night of hot sex_?

It was totally hot sex, she thought with a rueful grin as she felt that ache between her thighs, but so what? So they had chemistry, that didn't change the geographical truth that they lived thousands of miles from each other and besides, she sighed out loud as she thought how he was famous, the captain of the Chicago Blackhawks and she...

_I sell fucking software to hotels_, she reminded herself as she rounded a corner onto a dark street. You're nobody and he's somebody and...

"Where you goin' pretty lady?"

Edie jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She'd been so deep in thought she hadn't heard anyone approaching her. She whirled, ready to give Mr. Jonathan Toews a piece of her mind, only to find a young thug with tats right up to his neck wearing a wife beater and jeans that hung low over his hips, smiling at her and showing a neat set of shiny grills.

"How 'bouts you hand over that wallet your carrying and then we'll think about letting you go?" Another voice came out of the dark and Edie jumped again, this time letting out a little scream. Slapping her hand over her own mouth to stifle the sounds coming out of her lips, Edie backed away, one step, two steps and shook her head, her hand clutching her purse so hard she thought she could feel everything inside of it.

Lipstick, hotel room card, change purse, credit card. She took the inventory silently, '_nothing worth dying over_' she told herself, willing her muscles to relax. Still, the first thought that popped in to her mind was '_go fuck yourself'_. The second thought was that she didn't think she could run in these heels, wishing that Jonathan's 'sister' had left behind some shoes she could have worn instead of these ridiculous heels.

"Hand it over sister and you don't get hurt, maybe." Edie forced herself to look back at the first, greasy, pimple faced kid. She thought about hitting him and trying to kick off her shoes and outrunning his buddy who was bigger, yes, but not in the kind of shape that said he could run more than maybe a couple of blocks without having a stroke.

"How about you both crawl back in the hole you just crawled out of and you let me past and I won't call the cops," she tried, though part of her brain was telling her that she was doing something stupid. '_Well'_ she told that part of her brain, '_won't be the first stupid thing I've done tonight'_.

"Did you hear that Mouse?" the first kid, because that's what they were she realized, looked over at his friend who could have easily passed for any linebacker in the NFL, and smiled. '_Mouse'_ she thought and shook her head, that would be like calling Toews '_little dick'_. '_Oh so now you're making jokes?_' she asked herself and backed up another step, wondering how far back it was to the main street and if she screamed, would anyone hear her? "The pretty lady thinks she's gonna call the cops. Let me tell you sugar, cops don't come to this neighbourhood."

It did her no good now but Edie seemed to remember one of her clients telling her not to stray off of the main drags, that Chicago had good areas and bad areas. 'Guess this is one of those', Edie thought as she backed up again, gingerly stepping out of her shoes. She thought about picking them up but decided to leave her hands free. She was about to turn and run, but another male voice came out of the gloom.

"Why don't you guys pick on someone your own size?" A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that the voice that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up did indeed belong to the imposing over six foot frame of Jonathan Toews. Unable to help it, Edie shot him a look of undying gratitude before she was able to erase the relief from her face and replace it with a haughtier look of disdain, as if to say she could take care of this herself.

"Well c'mon, pretty boy, let's see what you got."

Jon brushed by her, putting her into his huge shadow. Edie stared up at his shoulders and felt a mixture of relief and fear. She didn't want him to get hurt any more than she wanted to be hurt, and that surprised her.

"Believe me when I say you don't want to do this," Jonathan told them and Edie did her best to hide a smirk. Jonathan probably looked like a college kid but she knew how tough he was, but even so Edie shot a glance at the giant who was still waiting in the shadows. There was two of them and only one of Jon.

"Oooh pretty boy thinks he so tough," the smaller thug made a move towards Jon and Edie watched his muscles tense. 'Oh god, I just killed Jonathan Toews' Edie thought, looking around, hoping to see a light go on in one of the homes nearby. She didn't see a light go on, but she did see a pair of blue and red lights go on at the end of the block as the 'whoop' of a police siren.

"Oh thank god," she hissed, the tension immediately leaking out of her body.

"We'll take it from here," a pudgy, older cop said as he stepped out of the car. He didn't even seem to mind when the smaller of the two thugs took off down the block. She half expected Jon to take off after him, but was relieved when a younger, fitter looking officer emerged at a run. She was so busy watching the chase that she didn't see Jon turn until she felt his hand clamp around her wrist and then she only saw his back as he pulled her along behind him.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He spun her around and pressed her against the brick facade of a nearby building. She could feel the sharp edges of the brick biting into her back but more painful was the intense look of fury on his face as he held her shoulders back, pushing them so hard she felt like he was trying to push her through the brick wall.

* * *

Stupid woman!

He couldn't remember the last time he was this angry or this scared. He'd been willing to take the beating for her but that didn't mean he was happy about it. Even now, now that the cops that had been at the diner had taken over and he was pretty sure they were safe, his hands shook as he dragged her behind him down the street to a more brightly lit area.

His hands were still shaking when he spun her around and pressed her up against the wall of the nearest building. He wanted to shake her, wanted her to scream at her and he wanted to hug her against him and know she was safe.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He was still staring at her through the red haze of violence that had his heart pumping wildly trying to keep pumping oxygen to his brain and muscles. It was the same feeling he got when he was unceremoniously dumped on his ass on the ice or shoved head first into the boards. As far as the fight or flight response, the flight response had been trained out of him a long time ago. He wasn't really a fighter, but he came up ready every time. "You could have been hurt! You could have been killed!" he growled at her, digging his fingers into her shoulders until she showed some expression on her face other than owl eyed shock.

"Yeah, well, _you_ lied," she replied petulantly, only her eyes giving away the fact that he'd probably scared her worse than those would be muggers had. He peered at her, trying to see through the scarlet haze, trying to make sense out of what she'd said.

"Lied?" he shook his head, trying to clear his vision. "What do you mean I lied?" he asked, incredulous and exasperated. She'd just walked off in the middle of the night and she was trying to blame him for...for what?

"You don't have a sister," she snarled back at him, leaving him momentarily speechless. At least until he laughed.

"That's why you took off?" He let go of her and took a step back, staring at her in disbelief. Edie lifted her chin and shrugged a shoulder and started to walk away, again. Jonathan grabbed her shoulder and spun her around, and, grabbing her by her upper arms, kissed her, hard. He felt her hands press against his chest and her mere touch sent flames of desire licking quickly towards his loins. He groaned into her mouth and pressed his body against hers', pushing himself up against her hard enough to cause her back to bend. He let his hands slide around to her back, up to her neck, cradling the back of her head as he kissed her.

Her hands balled into fists and she pummelled his chest. He broke off his kiss and stared down at her, trying his best not to smile and losing the battle. She opened her mouth but the only sound that came out was a feral growl and then her hand connected with his cheek in a slap that made him blink both in surprise and in actual pain. He was kind of glad she hadn't made a fist. If she tried she would have a hell of a right hook.

"You're making fun of me," she snapped, her chin still high, colour brightening her cheeks, her eyes flashing dangerously under the streetlights. She looked damned sexy when she was angry. He should explain about how he'd come to think of Kaner's sisters as his own, how he'd let them use his place while he stayed at Pat's or Sharpie's. He should explain that, but what he wanted to do was kiss her again, while she was like this, while she was spitting tacks and frothing at the mouth. He also wanted to be alone with her, now.

So he grabbed her again, his hand closing tightly around her wrist and pulled her down the street. She tried to pull her arm free but his grip was strong and when he was single minded about something, it was rare that anyone was able to change his mind or direction.

He pulled her into the nearest dark, apparently uninhabited alley, part of his mind screaming at him that this was a very bad idea, the other part needing to be inside of her, immediately. Pushing her up against the cement brick wall, he pressed himself against her, his hand going up to capture her face in his hand while he forced his tongue between her lips. His other hand made its way up beneath her t-shirt, cupping the weight of her breast in his hand, feeling her nipple hardening in the palm of his hand.

His cock throbbed where it pressed against her stomach. His brain was screaming at his to stop but his body was on fire and for once he was listening to his libido and not his conscience.

"I want you," he whispered into her ear as he tweaked her nipple between his fingers, making her draw in a sharp breath between her teeth.

"Here? Now?" she sounded less shocked than he thought she should, but then he knew he shouldn't be thinking about this at all.

"Yessss," he moaned as her hand found his length, rubbing him through his shorts. He was going to embarrass himself. He was going to cum in his shorts if he didn't do something quick. "Now," he added, moving her hand away so he could pull down his shorts while she worked the buttons on her borrowed pants and shoved them down over her hips.

* * *

This was crazy. They were going to get caught. They were going to get arrested.

She could see the headlines now. 'Captain Serious Caught with his Pants Down' or better yet 'Captain Serious in Serious Trouble'. She imagined a photographer catching them now, in flagrante delicto, Jonathan with his shorts around his feet and her, half way up a wall with his cock buried deep inside of her. She imagined Patrick Kane tweeting it and laughing at them. She was sure he'd never hear the end of it. She knew she wouldn't.

She barely remembered that she was supposed to be mad at him. That was hard to do with her ass pressed against a cold cement wall and all of his more than ten inches shoved up inside of her. She held on, her hands clasped around his neck and told herself that she could be angry later. Right now she was too close and too afraid of being caught to argue but she was damn sure she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of letting him know how turned on she was.

Whether it was adrenalin from almost being mugged, raped and left for dead or from having sex in an alley, Edie's entire body was tingling He'd barely had to touch her to light a fire in her. That look, the same determined, wild look he had in his eyes now had been enough to make her drench her panties. Having Captain Serious shove himself deep inside of her in public had her panting the muscles in the pit of her stomach doing the fucking samba. She was going to cum and cum hard but she wasn't going to scream his name.

He was close too. She could tell by the way he was breathing and how dilated his pupils were. Grinning down at him she squeezed her muscles around his cock and watched him gasp for air. She could have just as easily squeezed his balls, had she been able to reach, but it had the same effect.

She felt him let go, felt his dick spasm deep inside of her as jet after jet of cum filled her. His eyes squeezed shut and only then did she let herself go, pressing her mouth to his shoulder and biting down to stifle her screams.


	7. Chapter 7

_So so sorry for how long this took me to get out. I was doing this Christmas one shot for my yahoo group and it took way more of my time than I expected but I hope this is long enough and hawt enough to make up for the wait!_

"I can't believe we just did that. That _I_ just did that." Just like that he was back to being the ingénue, his face suffused with blood as he swirled the hot fudge sauce of his sundae into the melting remains of the ice cream he'd just downed like it was going to save his life. Maybe it was the only way he could cool his jets Edie thought, wondering why she felt more than mildly proud of herself as she reached to steal the cherry that floated in the melted ice cream.

"You mean me almost getting raped and mugged or...," she waited for him to look up at her, still blushing furiously, and then she smiled. It was almost too easy and yet she couldn't stop doing it, making him stammer and go red like some kind of virgin. He made a face and then glanced furtively around as if he thought everyone in the all night old fashioned ice cream parlour was looking at them, as if they knew that the great Jonathan Toews had just had sex in a public place.

"You shouldn't have gone off like that," he replied more soberly and Edie rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, but you still lied," she pointed out, grabbing one of the vanilla wafers from the pool of melted ice cream he was still scooping into his mouth.

"No," he replied calmly, rescuing a slice of banana and offering it to her. She was still mad but she was also hungry, so she leaned forward and let him put the spoon in her mouth. She held onto it with her teeth and made him fight to get it back. It was his turn to roll his eyes. "I didn't lie, exactly," he quickly added when she opened her mouth to repeat his lie back to him. "I just wasn't clear. What I should have said was that Pat's sisters sometimes use my place rather than staying at the garbage dump he calls a house," he explained and Edie found it easy to picture the frat house that Patrick Kane would live in, it probably made Delta Tau Chi look like Martha Stewart was their decorator. "So no, those clothes don't belong to some one night stand and no, before you ask," he added wearing the 'you must believe me' expression on his face, "I have never and have no plans to ever sleep with any of Kaner's sisters, even if they are cute." That part was added for her benefit, she knew, as he was barely able to hide the smile that tugged at the corners of his lips, his lips which looked like they'd been doing a lot of kissing.

Edie wondered if she looked like she'd been ridden hard and put away wet. The young waitress in her straight out of the fifties pinafore gave her one of those disapproving glances that clearly said 'I know what you've been doing'. Her expression changed one hundred and eighty degrees, however, when she turned to ask Jon if there was anything, and I mean, anything she could get for him; _him_, not _them_. The difference wasn't lost on either one of them.

"We're good, thanks," Jon answered politely, without looking up at the waitress who was standing a little too close to him in her blonde pig tails and bubble gum pink lipstick. He also reached across the table to put his hand over hers'. "Unless there's something else you want, babe?"

Babe? Edie couldn't think of the last time, or any time for that matter, that a guy had called her that except maybe in jest and whoever that had been would have quickly ducked, knowing that she'd be aiming for their teeth with her knuckles. In this instance, however, she didn't mind, _at all. _

"I have you don't I? What more could I want?" she answered in a sickly sweet syrupy voice as she batted her eyelashes at him and slid her fingers into his. The act had its desired effect. The Jenny Piccolo look-a-like made a huffing sound, jammed her note pad into her pinny and stomped off. Edie watched her go with a satisfied smile. "So, what's the plan Stan?" she asked, turning her attention back to Jon who was now softly brushing his thumb along the inside of her hand. She liked it. It felt restful.

"Did you...nah, you'll think it's dumb," he muttered, the tips of his ears suddenly turning red as he looked down at his now mostly empty bowl. He scraped his spoon around the edge, collecting the cooling fudge sauce, which he then sucked off slowly. Watching the way he did it made her nipples ache.

"Try me," she tried to stifle a yawn behind her hand but he looked up at the last minute, caught her and smiled.

"There's this old movie theatre that plays old monster movies all night but...you probably wouldn't be into that." He went back to digging around in his bowl and it seemed clear that was back to the shy Jonathan that was waiting...no, expecting to be shut down.

"Actually I really like old monster movies," she replied, running her foot up the inside of his leg, repeatedly, until he finally raised his eyes to meet her gaze. "But I've been up since six and someone's kind of tired me out," she added with a smile that made him blush again. "But I _was_ sort of thinking about the crazy big Jacuzzi tub of yours."

"Yeah?" He looked up and grinned and Edie thought to herself how much that lop sided grin of his was an unfair weapon. Every time he looked at her like that she found that she ended up grinning back at him like she had no control over herself or any of the muscles in her face. "I really didn't want to take you back to your hotel."

"And risk running into your buddy Kane in my roommate's bed? No thanks," she grinned back at him as he pulled a twenty out of his wallet and laid it out on the table before offering his hand to her and pulling her to her feet.

"Even if he is," Jon whispered in her ear as they walked past the waitress who was still eyeing him like he was a big piece of candy, not that he noticed, "I bet they haven't had as interesting night as we have so far." So far he'd said. Edie smiled to herself. It wasn't right that she felt that happy about something as inane as that statement, but she did.

* * *

"Oh...oh god." Her eyes were closed and she had a blissful smile on her face as she lay back in the mountain of bubbles. Jon dug his thumbs into her instep and laughed while she made sex noises. "Oh please don't tell me you guys sit around on the plane and rub each other's feet, or if you do, please just tell me you rub Sharpe's feet and not Kane's."

"We have people do this kind of thing for us," he told her, listening to the small bones of her foot creak and crack under the pressure of his ministrations.

"Screw hockey. You could do this for a living," she moaned, slipping further into the aromatic suds he'd filled the tub with. She was no longer wearing any of the make-up he'd first seen her wearing and she'd pulled all of her dark hair into a simple pony tail and she looked no less beautiful than the moment he'd seen her across the bar.

"I'll remember that if I ever get injured and can't play," he told her, running his thumbs up from her heel to the pad of her foot, eliciting a long, low groan. "So has no guy ever done this for you?" he asked, watching her face as he made the same motion along the top of her foot. She looked thoughtful for a moment and then she shook her head.

"I had a guy paint my toenails once," she replied, reaching blindly for the wine glass, her hand patting the tile but she still didn't open her eyes.

"Well I guess if you live long enough you'll have all kinds of experiences." The minute it was out of his mouth he wanted to take it back but the way her eyes opened, just a slit, told him he was going to pay for saying it.

"Was that a crack about my age?" she asked slowly in a threatening sort of tone as she pressed the ball of the foot he wasn't currently holding against his scrotum in a way that let him know that if he gave the wrong answer that she was willing to crush his nuts.

"I...I don't even know how old you are," he stammered, trying to slide away from the pressure of her foot but there was nowhere to go, unless he wanted to get out of the tub, and he was almost willing to lose a nut or two to stay in there with her.

"There are a few things you just don't ask a woman, like her age or how many guys she's slept with." He could tell that as soon as she said it she regretted bringing it up. She no longer looked relaxed. In fact, she glanced over at him with a distinctly concerned expression and then turned to grab the glass of chilled white wine that was sweating beside the tub.

"Why, has there been a lot?" He suddenly wanted to know. He actually wanted to know as much about her as she was willing to tell him, but this...this he wanted to know the answer to. She sipped at the wine and Jon could tell that she was considering ignoring the question altogether by the way she was refusing to look over at him. He reduced the pressure on her foot. That got her attention. "I'll tell you if you tell me."

"I'm not sure I want to know how far down your bedpost my notch goes," she told him, still holding the glass up near her lips, almost like she wanted to hand behind it.

"Five," he told her without her having to ask. Her eyes got a little wider and it was evident that she had to actually work at swallowing her wine instead of spitting it out. When she had finally managed that and had put her glass down she wiggled her foot loose while she studied him like he'd just said something outrageous.

"I won't be shocked if you tell me the real number," she promised in a clipped tone as she crawled out of the bath and reached for a towel, wrapping herself in it and reaching for a hand towel to dry the part of her pony tail that had gotten wet.

"That _is_ the real number," he insisted, hitting the button to drain the tub and then joining her on the fluffy bath mat, taking the smaller towel out of her hands and gently patting her hair dry. He looked up into the fogged mirror and was able to just make out that she was biting down on her bottom lip like she was considering whether to believe him or not. "I'm not Pat. I keep telling you that but you keep not believing me."

"Maybe I don't want to believe that you really are a good Canadian kid," she replied quietly, glancing at his reflection in the mirror with an unreadable expression on her face and then she walked out of the bathroom, heading for the bedroom. Grabbing a towel and wrapping it quickly around his waist, Jon followed.

* * *

Edie could feel his eyes following her as she searched the floor of his bedroom for the clothes she'd arrived in and the clothes she'd 'borrowed'. 'If I stay one more minute I'm doomed' she told herself, grabbing her heels and the slinky dress that had gotten her into this mess in the first place.

"Don't leave." It wasn't a request. He probably wasn't used to asking for things anymore but as much as she wanted to be offended by the demand, she could hear the plea in the timbre of his voice too and the part of her that was so afraid of staying yearned to give in to the command.

"No. This is crazy," she mumbled, struggling to pull on her g-string and hold onto the towel at the same time. "This is the craziest one night stand anyone has ever had in the history of one night stands," she added through clenched teeth. She heard him make a very male sound of frustration deep in his throat and had to fight the urge to turn around and look at the expression on his face. '_Because you'll end up looking at that chest and then you'll be putty in his hands and you know it'_ she lectured herself as she hopped from one foot to the other to pull the clam diggers back on.

"I don't get it." '_No, no, no'_, she thought, '_don't talk me out of this_.' "You were perfectly happy a minute ago, and now you're rushing out of her like I've done something wrong." She felt his hands on her shoulders and stiffened.

"It's just...this is nuts and I have meetings in the morning and," his lips pressed softly against the nape of her neck and Edie squeezed her eyes shut. He may as well have touched her clit she had the same knee weakening reaction.

"Stay," he whispered in her ear, "please." She wanted to stamp her feet. She did ball her hands into fists at her sides but instead of a growl of frustration, what came out was a pathetic sounding whine.

"Nooo." She sounded like a petulant child unhappy about not getting her way and she hated it but what she hated worse than that was that she wanted to give in to him so badly that she was teetering on the edge of saying something stupid, something that there was just no way she should even be thinking after only a few hours.

"What are you afraid of Eden?" he asked with his voice low and soft oozing like melted butter into her ear.

"Of you, of liking you," she admitted in a small, strangled voice. She wanted to rip her tongue out for confessing the truth to him. She also wanted to cry. She did neither. Instead she let him pull her back against the solid width of his chest, wrap his strong muscular arms around her and kiss her cheek.

"Would it help if I said I'm way past liking you?" he asked, pressing his lips to the corner of her eye where a single tear had managed to escape. She nodded and heard his answering laugh, more a vibration deep in his chest and a warm breath that tickled her cheek. "Then will you stay?" he asked this time and she nodded again. "Good."

He slowly turned her so that she was facing him and tipped her mouth up to meet his. He kissed her softly, moving his lips gently over hers' while he unravelled the towel from around her chest, dropping it to the floor at their feet. He manoeuvred her backwards towards the bed until the back of her knees hit the mattress and she naturally sat down before he pressed her back onto the mattress, his bigger body kneeling over her. His towel was gone and Edie found herself staring up at the long sculpted torso that looked like it belonged on a marble pedestal. She reached up and ran her fingers down his chest until they slid over the indentation of his belly button and found that thin trail of wiry curls that lead to the prize that rose to meet her hand.

* * *

Jon groaned as her fingers encircled his cock. He fought the urge to shut his eyes. He wanted to look at her, wanted her to see that he wanted to look at her.

This time was going to be different. This time wasn't going to be the frantic, sweaty coupling or the urgent, needy sex they'd already experienced tonight. This time was going to be slow. This time he wanted to take his time even if right at this moment, with her hands on him he didn't feel like he would last. It took a great deal of will power for him to pluck her hand from around his dick and press it over her head, but when he took her mouth again, when he felt the soft swell of her breasts pressing against his chest, the sensation was just as good.

It was harder, when she reached for him. It was harder not to give in to the feel of her warm hands on his still damp and cooling skin. It was hard not to give in to the way she raised her hips from the bed, pressing her hips to his. It took his only remaining will power to take that hand too and hold it above her head and continue to take his time, tasting her skin, her lips, her tongue. If this was it, and he didn't want it to be, then he wanted to know and memorize every single centimetre of her.

He only let go of her wrists when he lowered his mouth to her breasts, knowing she wouldn't be able to reach that part of him and do things to him that would weaken his resolve. He held her breasts together, moving his mouth from one pink tip to the other, licking and sucking them until she was whimpering and biting down on her full bottom lip and rubbing herself against his thigh. He watched her, the torment in her face telling him that she wasn't going to forget tonight and that was his goal. If he could never have her again, and please god let that not happen, he wanted her to remember this forever.

"Pleeeeeeease," she whimpered, opening her eyes to look down at him.

"Please what?" he asked, her nipple coming out of his mouth with an audible, wet popping sound.

"I want...I want...," she began, pressing her hips up against his.

"Want what?" he asked, kissing his way down her stomach until his tongue was slowly circling her belly button. "What do you want Eden?" He slid the pants she was wearing down over her hips as she raised her butt off of the bed to help him. He slid them up, bringing her legs with them until both of her ankles were on one of his shoulders.

"You," she sighed as he bit down on the instep of her foot.

"I'm right here," he teased, his fingers dancing down over her calf to tickle the back of her knee. She squirmed and made an angry face, but he had both of her legs pinned against his torso beneath one of his arms. She was trapped. Her eyes narrowed and she squeezed her pretty mouth closed. "Oh you want something...specific?" he asked, rubbing the head of his cock against the now swollen pink lips of her pussy. Her eyes rolled back in her head and her hands dug into the blankets as he pressed the head of his dick into her but went no further.

"Puhleeeeze!" she cried out, unable to do anything to force the object of her desire any further in. Laughing, Jonathan pulled out his cock and rubbed it over her entrance as she squirmed, trying to force herself closer.

"Tell me what you want me to do Eden," he said, his voice sounding hoarse. He wanted it as much as she did, maybe more, he wasn't sure. All he knew was that if she thought he was torturing her, he knew he was also torturing himself. "Tell me with that dirty mouth of yours'"

"Do it to me," she whimpered, her hands pushing her breasts together, and as he watched, she pulled at her own nipples and moaned. "Do it hard."

* * *

With a groan he submitted and shoved himself into her all at once, pressing the breath right out of Eden's lungs. He'd hardly had to touch her and she was so soaking wet for him that he easily slid the full length and girth of his tool to its' hilt. She was tighter this way and it almost hurt, or maybe that was just because he'd fucked her so hard before that she was still tender. It didn't hurt though, not exactly.

'_Hurts so good'_, she thought to herself. '_I guess this is what Mellancamp was talking about_.'

It still wasn't what she wanted though, or not _exactly_. He was inside her and that was good, no amazing, but what she wanted was to have him do it hard and fast the way he had when they'd fucked in the alley. She wanted to feel him moving inside of her but at the moment, as she looked at him, still holding both of her legs against his chest, his eyes were closed and he wasn't moving. He wasn't doing anything.

"Jon?" she asked, wondering at the concentration on his face.

"Just..._fuck_...just give me a minute, okay?" Edie smiled but managed to stop herself from laughing. He was trying not to cum.

"Oh, okay," she replied sweetly and then started doing Kegel exercises, shifting her weight onto her elbows and watching as his expression morphed from strained to tormented.

"Sheeeit," he cursed, his grip tightening on her ankles. She countered by tightening her muscles around his cock. He let out a long string of curse words and pulled out with one movement of his hips. Before she could even complain, he was pressing her thighs apart and diving into her pussy, tearing a scream from her throat as he pressed the flat of his tongue against her clit.

Edie grabbed a fistful of sheet in each hand as she rode the orgasm that bowed her spine. He wasn't letting up. His tongue was working furiously on her clit and he wasn't letting her down from the high that had her entire body quaking and shuddering as one orgasm after another sent electric shock after electric shock ripping through her.

"Enough! Mercy! Stoooppp!" she cried out, digging her heels into the edge of the mattress and scooting backwards, curling in on herself and eyeing him like a cat that you've stroked the wrong way. "Damn it I'm a little tender down there," she hissed like a cat and he looked properly dismayed as he crawled over the bed towards her and then gathered her into his arms.

"Does that mean you don't want me?" he asked quietly, stroking her hair back from her face before dropping a kiss to her forehead and then each of her eyelids in turn.

"No...damn it," she sighed, melting into him and allowing him to roll her onto her back. He eased into her, cognisant of how each and every twitch of her eyelid, waiting for her to tell him to stop. Only she didn't. She wrapped her arms around him, her fingernails digging into his shoulders and he felt her feet sliding up his thighs before they locked behind his back. "Deeper," she whispered against his mouth. He slid his hands down and lifted her off of the bed, using the strength in his legs and the new angle of her body to fulfill her request. "Yess...oh god yesss," she whispered into his mouth.

She was close and he didn't think he'd last more than another minute or two, as much as he wanted to have this moment last the rest of the night, or was it morning? He planted his mouth over hers and squeezed his eyes shut, willing himself to hold on, to let her go first, to let her pull him into the oblivion.

He felt her body go suddenly still and he pulled back, looking down into her face to see if he'd hurt her and tears were streaming down her face but when he opened his mouth to ask, she shook her head and pulled him back down to her, pressing her forehead into his shoulder as her body began to shake. She was saying his name, over and over, in a hoarse whisper and when he let go, when he felt his entire body fall into her arms, her name was on his lips.


	8. Chapter 8

if you haven't seen it, here's a link to some pics of JT's pad in Chicago:

.com/features/ct-toews-home-pg,0,

**Chapter 8**

She felt like she'd had a good work out. Her muscles were stretched and aching, her body was warm and relaxed and she was tired; really, _really_ tired. Vaguely, somewhere in the back of her mind she had the feeling that she'd slept through her alarm; that it was already later than she'd meant to sleep.

Opening one eye, she found herself staring out the floor to ceiling window at the morning light filtering through the high rises of the city.

"Oh fuck." Her eyes were suddenly wide open and she was already tossing back the covers when her wrist was caught in a crushing grip. Edie looked down at the fingers encircling her arm and then over at the boyishly handsome face to whom those fingers belonged.

"Stay," he mumbled, barely coherently, without even opening his eyes.

"I have sales meetings to go to," she tried to explain, wondering if she was going to be able to peel his fingers away from her wrist, if she was going to be able to free herself from his grip and then, secondarily, if she wanted to.

"Stay," he repeated, a little more firmly this time, opening one teddy bear velvet brown eye and fixing her with a gaze that was half challenge and half boyish grin. One dimple showed clearly though the rest of his face was hidden in the pillow. She wondered, briefly, how he hadn't smothered himself in his sleep.

"I'm already late," she tried to explain but his grip only tightened on her wrist.

"I want you to stay," he growled this time and, with a tug on her arm, pulled her closer to his warm body. With a little shimmying, he fit his body to hers and then locked his arm around her waist like one of those security bars on a roller coaster snapping into place, followed by his leg draping over hers' so that she felt a bit like she was being cuddled by an giant bear, only less hairy. Closing her eyes, she couldn't stop herself from smiling as he pressed a gentle kiss to curve of her shoulder. It would be so easy to just stay there, in the big warm bed with the big warm hockey player, but she did have sales calls to make, a job to do, people expecting her.

"I _have_ to go," she whispered, only to have him press his body impossibly closer to hers' until she felt like she might melt into the heat of his skin.

"Not yet," he replied, his voice muffled as his lips pressed against her skin, the nape of her neck, the spot between her shoulders, making her shiver.

'_Carolyn can take care of the calls'_, Edie told herself as Jonathan continued to kiss his way down her back while his hands cupped her breasts. It wasn't like she'd never had to cover for the dirty stop-out. She felt his dick rise against the back of her thigh and she rubbed herself against him until he moaned and rolled her over onto her stomach, digging his knee between her thighs to spread them.

She gasped as he entered her, her body still tender from the in numerous assaults of the night before. Could anyone ever get used to the size of that thing, she wondered as he dragged her hips up off of the mattress and pulled her body back against his, over his, until she felt his hips pressed flush against her ass.

She was going to have bruises where his fingers were digging in her hips but that was going to be the least of her injuries. '_He's ruining me for any other man_, she thought as she dug her fingers into one of the many pillows littered at the head of the massive king sized bed. It felt like there was no part of her that he wasn't touching, filling or spreading. She felt the solid width of his chest pressed to her back, heard his ragged breathing in her ear, but mostly all that she could feel was him, all of him, moving slowly inside of her.

She heard herself making noises that sounded almost inhuman, noises that sounded more like they were coming from a wounded animal. She felt like she was being stretched beyond the point of pleasure, but it was the sweetest kind of agony.

'_I could wake up like this every day'_, she thought to herself and then immediately tried to force the idealistic image out of her head. This was over, today. Tonight she was flying home, to Vancouver and the only time she'd ever see him would be on TV, playing against the Canucks and maybe, no, more than likely in her dreams.

"What happened?" he breathed in her ear. He'd gone still, but she could feel his heart beating against her back.

"Nothing," she muttered, squeezing her eyes shut against the sudden sharp pain she felt in her chest.

"Bullshit. You were with me and then you weren't," he hissed back at her.

"It just...it just hurt for a minute." It was a half truth at best but after a pause, as if he was mulling it over, he moved again, slowly pulling out as if he would stop altogether, before he very slowly slid his cock all the way back in until she felt his hips meet the soft flesh of her ass.

* * *

"Touch yourself," he whispered in her ear, peeling her hand away from the end of the mattress where it tucked into the dark leather headboard and guiding it down between her legs.

With his palm pressed against the back of her hand, he pressed her fingers up into the slick wet heat of her pussy and its' walls tighten around his cock as she began to stroke her clit.

"That's it," he whispered in her ear as he slid nearly free only to bury himself to the hilt inside of her again. His own hands slid up her ribcage to her shoulders, using what remaining strength he had to pull her back with each thrust. She whimpered and pushed back against him. His breath caught in his throat. He was so close already but wanted to make this last, to postpone her leaving or even better, stop her from going. He tried bringing dark, disturbing images to mind, like Byfuglien dancing to disco in the shower or Kaner trying to do the electric slide, anything to stop himself from losing control but every time she pressed that button her body clenched ever tighter around his and he knew he wasn't going to be able to stop the tide from crashing to the shore. "God you feel good," he told her, pulling out just to watch his dick disappear back inside of her.

She looked amazing against the crumpled white sheets on his bed. Her hair was almost the same colour as the headboard but her skin was almost golden in the early light of the day that streamed in through the window. He ran his hand down the line of her spine to her hip and found a set of paw prints tattooed there He ran his fingertips over the dark lines that marred her skin and watched as her skin turned to gooseflesh.

That wasn't the only imperfection his fingers found as they travelled lightly over her pale flesh. Her skin puckered into a crescent shaped pink scar on her other hip. He wanted to ask her about that, about the tattoos and about small mole on her left buttock. '_This can't be it'_ he swore to himself as she dropped her head so that her dark hair kissed the white sheets like a waterfall hiding even her profile from him and let out a long low moan.

"Now," she whimpered, the walls of her vagina tightening like a vice around his cock. "I'm...cumming...now!"

Jon squeezed his eyes shut and tried to breathe through the pressure he felt in his balls, holding himself absolutely still while her body sucked like a vampire at his, but it was too much. As soon as she dropped her hand away and grabbed at one of the pillows, he replaced her fingers with his own and the minute he touched her clit, her entire body bucked back against his and her pussy walls closed tight against him and he was gone.

He swore, he thought, cried out or cursed he wasn't sure. He was blind to everything but the way she felt, the fireworks going off in his head and the near pain in his balls as every last drop he had drained into her.

It took a few minutes before he could even catch his breath and then his knees gave out from under him and he collapsed to the bed, pulling her with him. He pressed his body close against her, fitting his knees to the back of hers' and wrapping his arms around her middle.

"You're amazing," he told her, nuzzling her neck.

"You're not so bad yourself," she whispered back, reaching for the quilt and pulling it up to her shoulder. "A bit of an exhibitionist but...not bad," she laughed laying one arm over his and sliding the other under a pillow.

"Oh the window...that," he chuckled and pressed his lips to the back of her ear. It's not as easy to see through as you might think from the outside. There's some kind of...I don't know, treatment or something. I'm not saying if you had a telescope or binoculars that it wouldn't have been a good show," he added, thinking about all the positions he'd had her in already and how many more he wanted to try.

"Mostly of your ass," she pointed out, giggling when he got silent. "It's a nice ass though," she added letting go of his arm to reach around and slide her hand over it.

"Nice enough to make you stay?" he asked in a more serious tone and then it was her turn to grow silent.

"I have to go," she said eventually, and though he detected a note of distress in her voice, Jon felt an answering pain deep in his chest.

"Stay for breakfast, at least?" he asked, wanting to buy himself time to think of some way to make her stay. She was silent again for so long that he felt certain the next word out of her mouth was going to be 'no', but instead she nodded.

"Coffee, black and then I really have to go."

"There's a cart downstairs, I'll be right back," he promised, kissing her cheek, sliding out of bed and bounding for his closet, grabbing his phone on the way by. He'd call Sharpie on his downstairs. Pat would know what to say to make her realize she had to stay.

* * *

"What are you doing?" she asked herself as she furiously rummaged through his closet looking for any more items of clothing left behind by Kane's sisters. "Acting like you're on fucking honeymoon," she berated herself as she came across a simple black wrap dress that had been carefully folded over top of a tiny black lace g-string. Edie held it up and made a face. "Beggars can't be chooser Edie," she reminded herself and pulled it on. She looked at the wrap dress sceptically, but with little other options, she pulled it on and tied it at her waist, shaking her head at the amount of cleavage it showed. Obviously Kane's sisters had no boobs as well. She thought about taking one of his suit jackets, but one look at how wide the shoulders were and how long the sleeves would be on her and Edie decided against it.

Grabbing her phone, she hit the speed dial for Carolyn's number and hoped that she hadn't left the hotel yet and could grab her something else to wear. After ten rings Edie snapped her phone shut, tugged her heels on again and went looking for the Jessica Rabbit dress she assumed they would have to return before they left the city.

Edie stood over the small desk in the corner of his room and stared down at the blank sheets of notepaper staring back at her. She felt like it was the least she could do, leave him a note, but she couldn't think of anything to say. She picked up the pen and put it down again. What _could_ she say? What was the proper etiquette for notes left to a one night stand?

Thanks for making sure I won't walk properly for days? Thanks for ruining me for all other men, keep up the good work? I'd really like to do this again sometime but I don't live here so...?

Edie shook her head and turned away from the desk. There was no point in a note or even leaving her number. It had been a one night stand and even leaving a note was making more out of it than there was or ever could be. So she liked him and he seemed to like her. It didn't matter.

She glanced out at the view from his room of the surrounding steel and glass jungle. If she needed any other proof that he was someone and she wasn't, she didn't need more than this view of the city overlooking the river to prove it.

"Get moving Edes," she admonished herself, "before you start blubbering like an idiot."

Running her fingers through her hair, knowing that until she got a hold of a proper brush that there was no way of truly correcting what obviously looked like sex hair, she flipped open her phone and dialed four one one..

"Hi, I need a taxi," she explained brusquely to the operator and waited to be put through. "Hi, yes, I need a taxi at...," she looked around the desk and picked up an envelope that looked like it might be a bill, "at four fifty East Waterside Drive. Five minutes? Great, I'll be outside." Closing her phone, Edie took one last look at the view, breathed a heavy sigh and then walked out of his bedroom where the condition of the sheets were testament to what had been done in them and the scent of sex hung in the air.

* * *

"I'm in love."

"Wait, who is this? Did you steal this phone? No, wait. Is that you Kaner?" Jonathan made a face as he stepped out of the elevator and into the foyer of his building. There were other tenants leaving, in their business suits with their briefcases in their hands, looking very different from Jon in his track pants and t-shirt.

"It's me Sharpie, it's Jon," Jon grumbled into the phone as he walked out the front doors of his building and joined the line up at the coffee cart.

"It can't be. Captain Serious doesn't have time for girls let alone feelings." Jon could hear the grin in Patrick's voice and reminded himself that this was all new for him.

"I met someone last night," he continued, trying to ignore the sarcasm in his teammate's voice.

"Last night? Shit Tayzer, from zero to hero or what?" Jon clenched his teeth while Pat laughed at his expense. Eventually his silence spoke loudly enough that Pat cleared his throat and got serious. "Okay, so you met someone, and I'm not saying she's not a perfectly nice person JT but this is exactly why we've all been telling you that you have to get out more. You don't fall in love with some random girl you don't know from Adam."

"She spent the night, the _entire_ night," Jon pointed out, marvelling at the thrill that went through him when he thought about it. "We talked and she's...brave and crazy and funny and..._amazing_," he added breathlessly, turning pink when the older woman in front of him in the line turned around and smiled indulgently at him.

"Whoa there cowboy. All this in one night? She might be able to suck a golf ball through ten feet of hose but let's not get carried away." Jon shook his head. He'd hoped that now that Sharpie was tied down he'd understand and have some encouraging words for him, which is why he'd called him and not Kaner.

"I want her to stay. I just thought you might have some words of wisdom for me but if all you're going to do is take the piss then..."

"You're serious huh?" He heard Patrick make a derisive noise deep in his throat and waited to hear if the talented forward would continue to make fun of him or if he'd actually offer some useful advice. "And she actually wants to leave? She's not...making calling all her friends move into your place and planning your wedding?"

"No...actually she kind of hates me," Jon grinned to himself, thinking about how last night had begun, or at least the part right after he'd kissed her. "She's from Vancouver. She's a Canucks fan," he explained and then listened while his teammate laughed.

"So she's not one of yours and Kane's puck bunnies?" Pat mused. "Well, good I guess."

"Yeah, she pretty much hates us but it's a good thing for me that she hates Kaner more," Jon laughed himself.

"So she at least has _half_ a brain," Pat chuckled. "And so she's going home to Vancouver?"

"I want her to stay," Jon sighed, reaching into his pocket to pull out a wad of folded bills as he neared the front of the line. "I _need_ her to stay." For a long moment his friend was silent as Jon ordered a large black coffee, handing over a five dollar bill as the cup was filled.

"I don't know Jon, one night...," Pat's voice fell away and the words left unspoken were loud in Jon's ears.

"It _could_ happen though right? I'm not crazy. I know how I feel," he mumbled as he took the Styrofoam cup and walked away from the cart and back towards his building.

"I guess...yeah I guess," Pat replied quietly. "I don't know what to tell you except..." Jon heard his teammate sigh and then fall into silence. "Well, I guess the truth is always the best way to begin," he added sincerely. Smiling to himself, Jon nodded. It was in his heart to do just that but hearing someone else say it out loud aided in his decision.

"Thanks Pat. I'll catch you later at practice."

"Make sure you do," his teammate told him with his usual amused tone. Jon stuck his phone in his pocket and stepped into the elevator with a smile on his face. He was going to tell her how he felt and ask her to stay. It felt right and his heart swelled in his chest in reply.

As he stepped out on his floor, he almost felt like he was floating. The guys might tell him he was crazy but he knew that he wasn't.

"Eden I was just talking to my friend and I was telling him..." Jon's voice fell away as he walked into his room to find his bed empty. He turned in a tight circle, looking for her clothes, but they were gone, and so was her phone from his night table. "Eden," he called, pushing open the doors to his walk in closet, but she wasn't there either.

She was gone.


	9. Chapter 9

_as always, thanks for your patience. Hopefully with things being a bit slow I should be able to knock a couple chapters out this week _

**Chapter 9**

"You're late," Carolyn hissed as Edie slid into the empty seat beside her at the board room table. "Nice dress,' she added giving her friend's cleavage a skeptical look.

"It was all I could find," Edie hissed, reaching over for the notes that Carolyn had sitting in front of her. "Who are we meeting with?"

"Judge and Dolph," Carolyn pointed to the header on the page.

"And what do they do again?" Edie asked, trying to pull the front of her dress together. When Carolyn didn't answer right away Edie looked up to find her workmate staring at her intently. "What?"

"You always know...you always know all the facts and figures," Carolyn's eyes were laughing even as she acted as if they were discussing the agenda for the meeting. "He must have been amazing in bed." Edie wanted to look outraged but could barely contain a smile, even as she bit down on the inside of her cheek.

"Let's just concentrate here. So these guys are liquor distributors, okay, and...what? Why are you looking at me like that?" Edie felt her cheeks get red.

"You spent all night with Captain Serious didn't you?" Edie drew in a sharp breath and clenched her fist in her lap. "You _did_, you spent the whole night with a professional hockey player and had crazy, amazing earth shattering sex."

"Carolyn can we just deal with this," Edie laid her hand flat on the page in front of her, "because I seriously can't deal with that right now."

"Oh my god," Carolyn grabbed Edie by her shoulders and stared at her with a huge grin on her face. "You like him don't you?"

"Carly, please...just, not right now. I promise we'll talk about this later but right now we have to get through this meeting and then get on a plane, okay?" Edie begged and Carolyn rolled her eyes but smiled and nodded.

"But you will tell me everything right? All the gory details?"

"I promise," Edie whispered as the door to the conference room opened and three men in suits walked in. Carolyn rolled her shoulders back and flipped her hair and turned on her megawatt smile. Edie sighed and then turned her own attention to the board members of Judge and Dolph. 'Gentleman, thanks for meeting with us," she stood and offered her hand over the table but it wasn't the face of the middle aged man in the charcoal suit that caught her attention, it was the tie he was wearing, a Blackhawks tie. "Shit," she whispered under her breath. "Please don't tell me that supposed to be some kind of sign."

"Thanks for coming. We're looking forward to presentation but you'll have to make it brief, my brother has me coming to some sort of lunch meeting."

"Your...your brother?" she asked as he took her hand in both of his.

"Rocky, Rocky Wirtz, he owns the Blackhawks."

"Oh come on."

* * *

"That's like five shots you missed," Kaner pointed out unnecessarily. Jonathan gripped his stick even more tightly in his fist. "I've never seen it before. I mean, I've had coaches tell me that you can't have sex before a game but practice? Man, I guess you're glad that chick is gone huh?"

"Not really," Jon grumbled, leaning up against the glass as he watched Sharpie line up for a penalty shot. He could feel his shorter teammate staring at him and he didn't need to look to know that Kaner was wearing an incredulous expression on his face. "Just because you don't care about anyone doesn't mean that I don't have a heart," Jonathan added quietly by way of explanation.

"I don't care how good the sex was," Kaner slapped Jon's leg with the blade of his stick, "you can't have feelings for a girl after one night."

"Maybe you can't but I think we've proved time and again that _I_ am not _you_," Jon pointed out, knocking Pat's stick away with his own.

"So...what? You're seriously going to stand there and tell me that this pissy mood you're in is over that chick you picked up at the party last night?" Jon shrugged. The last person he wanted to talk to about the way he was feeling right now was the teammate that took pride in adding multiple notches to his bedpost every night. "Jezus man! It's just pussy. You're not supposed to get attached to it. That was the perfect pussy too, the kind that fucking leaves after you're done with it." It was a predictable reaction from Pat and Jon didn't so much as flinch. What good would having an argument do anyway, he asked himself. Edie was gone and she wasn't coming back. "Oh man, you are pathetic." Pat continued to berate him. "You cannot get hooked on one pussy when there's all of those to choose from," his curly topped teammate added, sending a slap shot across the ice that made the glass vibrate in front of a group of giggling girls. Jon looked up at them and then turned his attention back to the ice.

"I don't expect you to understand," Jon mumbled, taking a pass from Brooksy. In two steps he was streaking towards the net. He felt bad for Turco, almost, but snapped a wrist shot at his head anyway. He could hear the net minder cursing him out but it was just background noise to the thoughts filling his head, ideas about how to find her, where she might be now, when she might be leaving and if he could find her before she did. "Fuck!" he snarled, whacking the boards with his stick, breaking it in two.

"Whoa, little buddy, what's up?" Seabrook grabbed one end of the broken stick and stood, staring at John, slack jawed.

"He thinks he's in love," Sharpie answered for Jon, coming to a stop with a spray of ice. "How'd that go, by the way? Is the little lady waiting eagerly for you back at your love nest?"

"No," Jonathan mumbled. It felt somehow worse having to tell everyone else about it. "I got back and she was gone."

"Whoa, seriously?" he groaned inwardly when Kaner joined the little group by the boards. "She sounds like my kinda girl. I hate the ones that hang around and expect breakfast." Jon sent his friend a dark look and then turned back to the guys he expected better, more constructive answers from.

"She's flying out today. I'll probably never see her again anyway," he grumbled, knowing that he sounded like he was feeling sorry for himself and that he was probably opening himself up for some serious ridicule but he couldn't really help himself.

"So what are you doing here?" Seabrook asked, giving him a playful shove that nearly sent him off balance. "If she was that hot man, get your ass to the airport."

"Brooksy's right," Sharpie added, leaning against his stick and fixing his younger teammate with an amused look. "If she's really all that and a bag of chips, what _are_ you doing here?" Jon looked at his teammates who were all looking back at him expectantly.

"You think I should...I mean...should I go to the...no, that's ridiculous. Kaner's right. I can't go chasing after some one night stand that lives half way across the country. What would be the point?" Jon looked at each of their faces in turn and each of them stared back at him like they actually expected him to do something crazy, like leave and go to the airport after a woman he hadn't even known twenty-four hours.

"Look, I'm not a big believer in fairy tales or shit like that," Brooksy smiled and shrugged, "but if hockey's taught me anything it's that you don't turn down opportunities. If you send me a good pass and I have an open net, I shoot, you know?" The funny thing was Jon didn't need any further explanation from his teammate. If an opportunity presents itself, you don't think about it, you just act on it. There was just one little problem.

"What if she totally laughs in my face?" he asked, mostly under his breath and mostly to himself but Sharpie put his arm around Jon's shoulders and turned to aim him at the bench.

"Then it wasn't meant to be but at least you'll know and you can get your head back in the game. But you're not good to us the way you are Tayzer so...go and give it your best shot." The last thing he felt was Sharpies hand on his back as he stepped into the bench and headed for the dressing room, his brain already going over the hundred different things he might say to try and stop her from getting on the plane.

* * *

"It's too bad you don't have time to stay for a game," Peter Wirtz took both of Edie's hands in his and held them while they stood in entrance, "even if you would probably be rooting against our boys."

"I'd have enjoyed it, no matter what. I'm a good Canadian girl that way," she told him honestly. "I love hockey. But you're right, I don't think I can find it in me to root for the Hawks." '_Even if one of them is super cute and amazing in the sack',_ she added silently as she turned her cheek for him to kiss. "But maybe next time we come we'll have to make sure we have time for you to take us to a game, even if it's just to sit through that crazy thing you guys do during the national anthem."

"It's the loudest rink in the league," he grinned proudly and she knew she there was no argument there. Hawks fans did seem to be rabid.

"I'll have to pack my 'Nucks jersey next time," she promised and he laughed and then lifted her hands to his lips.

"Until next time then. It was a pleasure to meet you Eden."

"And you Mr. Wirtz. I look forward to your order," she added, raising an eyebrow and winking. She was almost sure their business was in the bag but she hadn't come away with a signed order and if it was one thing she knew about sales it was not to count her chickens before they hatched.

"Maybe you'll have to come back to sign the paperwork," he grinned at her flirtatiously. He was years older than her but he hadn't been lecherous. He just seemed naturally playful.

"Well you certainly have a beautiful city. We'll definitely be back one way or another," she said, tasting the truth in her own words. Now that she could see the waiting cab just outside the doors, she felt like she should feel relieved, but she didn't.

"Come on Ede's the meter's already running," Carolyn called as Peter opened the door for her.

"Sure you can't stay for the game?" he asked one more time and Eden sighed but shook her head.

"I'd like to but no. We have a sales meeting tomorrow morning," she replied tentatively, looking plaintively towards the waiting cab. "Can't miss that," she added with a sigh.

"I'll call your boss," Peter said suddenly, his hand on her shoulder, "tell him you've got our business but you have to stay to fill out the paperwork. I'll even throw in a Hawks jersey for you to wear at the game." Edie turned and grinned at her client. "I won't take no for an answer," he added with a wink.

"Then I guess we're staying," she grinned back at him. "Hey, Carolyn, we're going back to the hotel," she added turning back to offer her hand to Peter.

"I'll send a car to pick you up for the game. What hotel are you staying at?"

"The James," she said, her heart fluttering in her chest. "And if you're really getting a jersey for me, make it a Toews."

* * *

"She's not here," he hissed into his phone, searching the crowd for a woman with her face.

"Maybe there's more than one flight to Vancouver?" Sharpie asked. Jon knew his teammate was trying to be helpful but as he gripped the ticket he'd had to purchase to get through security, it was something he had to remind himself of in order not to snap Patrick's head off

"This is the only one and before you ask, I checked the flight to Seattle too. I even paid one of the flight attendants to see if her name was on the list. She's definitely supposed to be here, but she's not." He scanned the crowd for a third time, his heart racing.

"Maybe that's good news. Maybe she changed her mind and went back to your place," Sharpie suggested, sounding hopeful. Jon felt his heart stop beating in his chest, but only for a minute.

"Or maybe she was in such a hurry to get away from me she skipped town early and caught an earlier flight," he groaned as he turned in a slow circle, hoping to catch a glimpse of her running for the terminal, pulling her bag behind her, but try as he might, he still didn't see her in the crowd.

"Jezus you're a dark mother fucker aren't you?" Sharpie laughed. "Can't you ever look on the positive side? Shit, man."

"_Last boarding call for flight one five nine to Vancouver_." Jon glanced at his watch and cursed as the last call went out over the loud speaker with Edie still nowhere in sight.

"She's not here dude. I don't even know what I'm doing here," he sighed, feeling suddenly resigned to the fact that he'd come all this way for nothing. Pulling his ball cap further down he hoped no one had recognized him in his most desperately pathetic and embarrassing moment ever. "I'm coming back. I'll see you guys in a bit."

"I'm sorry Jonny boy," Sharpie said and Jon believed he really was sorry.

"Me too," he sighed, "me fucking too."


	10. Chapter 10

.com/watch?v=YRxrvTexb3E _omg he speaks fluent French? I'm dead_

**Chapter 10**

"Look at that face. Oh my god son, you're breaking my heart." Jon looked up from lacing his skates to find goalie Turco standing over him shaking his head.

"I know, pathetic isn't it?" red headed defenseman Brian Campbell was next to throw his five cents in. Jon went back to tugging at his laces. He didn't expect them to understand and he sure as hell wasn't about to let their ribbing distract him from the game. The ache he had in his chest was already doing that.

"You gonna be okay kid or do you want to borrow Kaner's soother?" Keith asked as he passed, tapping the blade of his stick against Jon's shins. Jon didn't look up. He should be used to this by now, he told himself as he gritted his teeth and did his best to ignore the snickering of the rest of his teammates. If they wanted to laugh at him, at the expense of his feelings, he'd have to let them. He had a god damn job to do out there and if he blew up at his teammates he'd expend energy he intended to use against the visiting Oilers.

"Don't listen to them kiddo," Sharpie sat heavily on the bench next to him. Jon glanced sidelong at his older, but he knew from experience, not always wiser teammate. "You gonna be okay out there?" Jon nodded silently. He would be fine once he hit the ice. That was his office, his home away from home. He'd forget how much it hurt that she'd just left without a word once he got out there, in front of the fans and felt the vibe of a real game. "Good," Sharpie smiled and Jon went back to his skates.

If he wasn't a hundred percent by the end of the warm up, he'd just have to hack at Stortini's ankles and do a suicide drop of his gloves in front of the big ugly bruiser. If just playing a game didn't get his juices going enough to forget about her, even for a while, a concussion might.

* * *

Edie slipped the jersey over her head. She was glad to have her cleavage finally covered but it felt strange to be putting on the red and white and not the blue and green of her home team. Still, as she glanced down at the visiting team stepping out onto the ice, she wasn't a fan of the Oilers either.

"Looks good on you." Edie looked down at the Native chief's head logo on her chest and winced.

"Feels weird," she replied honestly.

"I gotta send a picture of this back home," Carolyn squealed, holding her phone up and ignoring the look of warning that Edie shot in her direction. "Oh c'mon, turn around," her co-worker grinned. Rolling her eyes, Edie turned her back to the camera and brushed her hair out of the way of his name. "You're never gonna live this down Edes."

"Yeah, yeah," Edie sighed, and was about to say more, but a roar suddenly erupted, drowning out her warning. She moved to the edge of the box and looked down at the ice. The Hawks players were making their way onto the ice and her breath caught in her throat as she caught sight of the number nineteen on his back.

"Did you want to go down to ice level to watch the warm up?" She looked over at Peter who had suddenly appeared at her side.

"Would that be...possible?" she asked, her pulse suddenly doubling as she turned her gaze back to the men circling the ice at speed. You couldn't hear their skates biting into the ice from here, and she couldn't see his face. She longed for both.

"Sure, let me get an usher. We can probably even arrange to have you meet some of the guys after the game, get you an autograph or two if you like," he added, signalling to someone over her head.

"That would be...great," Edie replied with a grin, "just great."

Would he be able to see her, she wondered, from wherever they ended up near the ice. She didn't have to ask herself how she felt about that. Her rapid pulse and clammy hands were answer enough.

"This way," a hulking security guard with a flashlight that looked like a weapon and a walkie talkie that looked more like a brick appeared behind her. With a grateful smile aimed towards their new client, Edie turned to follow the big man back into the hall and, a few steps away, into a small private elevator that he had to open with a key that she was willing to bet not just any old Tom, Dick or Harry would have access to.

It took less than two minutes for them to find themselves squeezing past the Zamboni and walking towards its' entrance, right behind where Marty Turco was working on his knees, blocking shots and tipping them towards the boards. Edie searched the ice for his jersey, his number and his chocolate coloured eyes. He was lined up at the blue line with some of his other teammates. He was shuffling his feet, tapping the blade of his stick on the ice impatiently and wearing a seriously grim expression.

"I'd say you wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley right now, but I'm guessing you wouldn't agree with that statement." Edie was already regretting having told Carolyn anything, except she'd been fairly sure if she hadn't she'd have imploded but she didn't answer her friend's assertion. She was too busy reminding herself to breathe and remain upright as he took two leaping strides before he began streaking towards Turco and the net at full speed.

"Holy hell," she coughed, her entire body swaying towards the glass and the nearer he got the thicker the air got and the harder it was to draw it into her lungs. The puck ricocheted off the glass right over their heads. Carolyn let out a loud squeal that made everyone around them turn and look, including Jon as he skidded to a halt just in front of the net, sending a shower of snow towards Turco, who justifiably gave him a shove with his hefty goalie stick.

"He's taller than I remember," Carolyn slapped her hands against the glass to get his attention but Edie knew that particularly annoying sound wasn't necessary. A slow, sweet smile was spreading across his perfect mouth as his gaze locked with hers'.

'Hi', she mouthed, pressing her hand up against the glass.

He shook his head and chuckled and then took the three strides necessary to stand before her, towering over her in his skates, with only the glass separating them. Hundreds of fans behind her shouted greetings, called his name, but his gaze held hers' and if he heard them, if he even realized they were there, he didn't let on.

* * *

He didn't think he'd been this happy or this nervous since he'd tossed the first pitch at Wrigley. His heart was racing and he knew he was grinning like an idiot but he couldn't help himself. He pressed his gloved hand against the glass in line with hers' and stood there, grinning. _Holy shit_, he thought to himself, _she is so fucking beautiful_.

"You came back," he finally managed to say and she nodded, grinning back at him. For a moment he wondered what this looked like, with him standing there with his hand and face pressed up against the plexi-glass but then he decided that everyone in the stands were hella lucky that there was glass in between the two of them, or he'd probably have already had her out of that jersey by now.

"I guess I can't stay away," she called back, her sexy voice muffled by the thick glass that was the only thing keeping them from doing something indecent and illegal.

"Can I see you? After the game?" he asked, his heart stopping as he held his breath, waiting for her answer. She seem to think about it and for a moment he was almost sure she was going to shake her head and say something like she was going to leave right after the game or something like that and he felt his smile fade as she just stared blankly up at him. But then she surprised him, pleasantly, by smiling and nodding. "Right on!" he was back to grinning like an idiot and he pumped his fist as if he'd scored a goal. She laughed. He couldn't really hear it through the glass but he already knew the sound and just thinking about the sound made him hard. "Where are you sitting?" he asked, looking around for someone to open the gate so he could smell her hair, feel her soft, smooth skin. She looked around, with a puzzled frown like she didn't know and then her sexy, playful smile reappeared as she pointed up toward the boxes. Jon followed her line of sight and saw two of the Hawks' owners standing near the front of one of the boxes. He frowned back at her, unsure if that was really where she meant to point. "You know the Wirtz's?" he asked and she just grinned and shrugged. Shaking it off and deciding it didn't matter if it meant he could see her, touch her again, Jon motioned to the spot she was standing at. "Be here, after the game, I'll find you." She shook her head.

"Peter said he'd bring us down to meet some of the players after the game," she called back to him, wearing that mischievous grin that made him want to do things to her that would get him arrested for sure. "Do you think I could get your autograph, Mr. Toews?' she asked, biting down on her bottom lip even as she answered his unspoken desire with ideas of her own that showed clearly behind her eyes.

"Absofuckinglutely," he replied, growling in frustration at being kept from touching her. "I can't fucking wait."

"Better play good then," she called back at him, stepping back from the glass so he could see that she was wearing _his_ jersey. It hadn't really registered with him until that moment bit seeing it did nothing to make him feel better about wearing a protective cup right at that moment.

"I'll score for you," he called back, reaching for a puck with his stick and with a twist of his wrists picked it up on the blade of his stick and flipped it towards the top of the glass. He watched it go up and over and when he looked back, she was watching it fall, right onto her friend, the tiger girl from last night's face. He laughed and shook his head as her friend let out a blood curdling screech. Edie merely shrugged and then turned to put her arms around her friend, leading her away from the glass.

"Is that your little bed buddy?" Sharpie asked, giving Jon a shove as he happily skated away from behind the net. For his part, Jon could only grin and nod. He was going to have to have a cold shower before the game started. He could hardly breathe, let alone answer questions. "She's definitely a hottie," Patrick added and Jon felt his grin grow, but again, he only nodded before heading for the bench and the dressing room and then a very, cold shower.

This game was going to last for fucking ever.


	11. Chapter 11

_true to my word, another chapter before the end of the week, and at your request longer and sexier! _

_so if I don't get anything else done over the next couple of days, I wish all of you a very festive solstice and may all you love be blessed!_

**Chapter 11**

"Awwww shit!" Kaner tossed his stick down the hallway, his gloves following as he continued his temper tantrum into the room. Normally Jon would have felt the same. He wouldn't have gone so far as to toss his stick or anything else, but he would have been hard pressed to find anything positive to say or think.

He hadn't played well. Despite getting a power play goal, he hadn't had a great game. He hadn't been responsible in his own end and more than once he'd sent a pass to no one, or worse, to an Oiler's player. Still, as he dropped down to the bench in front of his stall, Jonathan was smiling.

"You're freaking me out Captain Serious," Dunc was already half out of his skates. If they'd won most of the guys would have been hooting and hollering and the music would have been cranked. After a win it always took longer to go home. After a loss, the room would be cleared in less than half an hour.

"Sorry," Jon apologized automatically and then bent to take off his skates. He heard Dunc laugh and then felt his fellow Winnipegger hand mussing his hair.

"I don't like losing man, but I'm glad to see you wearing that stupid spaced out grin. I was beginning to think that you really might be some kind of android or something." Jon glanced up at the rugged defenseman and smiled.

"That's a pretty big word for you," he teased and then watched as Dunc's eyes got wider before he let out a shudder and turned to walk away. Laughing to himself, Jon went back to pulling off his skates and then started ripping the tape off of his socks.

"I'm not sure if I should feel guilty about what happened out there or not." The small hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and his whole body felt suddenly warmer, like he'd just taken a swig of Irish whiskey. He stared at the very high heeled black boots in front of him and suddenly his mouth turned into a desert. Following the boots up to where they ended just above her knees, Jon flexed his fingers that began to itch with the need to slide up the smooth pale skin, up beneath the hem of the black skirt. "I'm up here Mr. Toews," she purred and Jon thought he nodded, but wasn't sure. His gaze was sort of stuck at the glimpse of lace topped thigh highs and he wasn't entirely sure but he thought he could just see black ribbons and garters too.

"If you don't know what to do with that Tayzer, I'll be glad to help out," Sharpie called from somewhere across the room. Jon ignored the howls and cat calls that followed. He knew what to do with her alright. He just didn't know how long he could stop himself from doing it.

"You just gonna sit there and stare, Captain Toews? Or am I going to get an autograph?" She was holding a pen out towards him and his befuddled brain knew he was supposed to get up and sign the jersey she was wearing but other, far less family friendly answers to that question kept coming to the forefront of his brain as he got to his feet and finally looked into her emerald green eyes. She was still holding the pen out but he ignored it and took her face in his hands instead and kissed her, hard, right there in front of everyone.

A cheer went up around the room that only sounded half sarcastic but he didn't care about anyone else in that room at that moment. All he cared about was that her lips tasted like Dr. Pepper, that her tongue was cold against his and that her body softly pressed against his as she wrapped her arms around his back.

* * *

"You kind of stink," she whispered into his ear as he hugged her close.

"You smell great," he whispered back, "and that colour suits you."

"I was kind of surprised I didn't automatically break out in hives actually," she replied as he finally unwound himself from her, although he didn't let go of her completely, his fingers automatically lacing with hers'.

"Maybe just because it's mine," he told her in a whisper, not that he had to. The room that had gone silent when she'd walked in behind Rocky Wirtz now sounded like a beehive. "It probably would have it had been Kaner's."

"At least, but definitely a rash," she replied with a smirk.

"So can I take you home?" he asked, brushing her dark hair back over her shoulder. "I mean, are you going to take off again on me or...?"

"Carly rescheduled our flight for tomorrow," she explained, "early," she added, cringing. He sighed; his expression shifting from ecstatic to dejected before he squared his shoulders and nodded.

"Okay, one more night. I'll take it," he said resolutely and then, running the back of his hand down her cheek, he dropped his mouth onto hers' for a brief, soft kiss. "Just let me get out of my gear and have a shower and then I'm spending one more night, the entire night, alone with you." His hand held her chin and the way he looked at her made her heart leap against her rib cage.

Edie nodded and turned and headed out through the doorway and into the crowded hallway, glancing back over her shoulder once before the double doors closed to see him standing there by his stall, watching her with a hangdog look on his face. _One more night_, she repeated to herself silently. He made it sound like he'd be lead to the gas chamber afterwards. She wondered, just for a moment, if it would feel like that to leave him again and then she blew out a long breath through pursed lips and forced the thought from her mind.

"He's not that important," she told herself in a voice meant only for her own ears. "It's just sex, that's all," she added and then shook her head at her own lie and laughed.

* * *

They didn't talk when he walked her out to his car. They didn't even attempt small talk as his sedan sped through the streets of Chicago towards the river and his condo with a view. They glanced nervously at one another in the elevator. Holding hands made it feel like a date, right down to his sweaty palms. The x-rated images swirling in his brain, however, were unlike any he'd had on a date before.

The minute the door closed and he locked it behind him, he felt like it was his first time all over again. He wiped his hands down his suit pants as he watched her walk over to the floor to ceiling windows in the living room. His jersey was under her arm. She was wearing a black cocktail dress and knee high boots, but he wasn't seeing her clothes. In his mind she was already naked, in his bed.

His cock strained painfully, tenting his pants as he watched her drop the jersey onto the arm of his couch and reach back to unzip her dress. He told himself he should help her. He told himself that it was the gentlemanly thing to do and besides that, he wanted to smell, touch and taste her skin, but he remained rooted to the spot, staring.

The dress fell around her feet and still she stood with her back to him, only now he couldn't ignore what she was wearing, or not wearing, which now seemed very much more important.

Her dark hair cascaded down her bare back. She wasn't wearing a bra and her full breasts peek-a-booed at him in the window as she stood there in just those boots, stockings a garter belt and black bikini panties. She stood there for what felt like a long moment, looking at his reflection in the glass before she reached back for the jersey and slowly slipped it over her head.

_That's definitely going to change the way I look at our jersey_ he told himself as he moved towards her, each step seeming to take forever, their gazes still locked in the reflection, the only illumination that of the city lights winking at them, like thousands of diamonds surrounding her. The ice crew girls at the rink that Kaner was always ogling wore less and didn't look this good.

He grabbed her shoulders and pressed his body against the back of hers. Her hair smelled like apricots and her skin tasted of lavender. She gasped as his teeth tugged at skin of her neck and the sound made him even harder than he'd already been. He rubbed his erection against the small of her back and, in answer, she pressed back against him, pressing her round little bottom against him, teasing him.

Growling in frustration, he pressed her against the glass until she was literally trapped there. He took her hands and pressed them flat against the glass and held them there while he pressed the evidence of his desire against her.

"Why'd you leave this morning?" he asked before biting down on her earlobe, tasting the metal of her earring in his mouth.

"I told you I had work to do," she hissed but it wasn't pain, he knew by the way she shuddered. He'd felt her body do that before. He felt confident that he knew the difference.

"Is that all?" he asked, using one hand to loosen his tie, still holding her other hand against the glass. "Is that the only reason?" he added, his voice taking on the rough edge of anger as having her back in his apartment reminded him of the hurt he'd felt when he'd found her gone. He watched her reflection, watched her bite down on her full bottom lip as she shook her head. "Tell me," he hissed in her ear, his gaze still focussed on her reflection. Again, she only shook her head but this time she averted her gaze from his. "I think you know," he told her, his lips brushing the delicate shell of her ear. "Tell me."

"I think you have a pretty good idea," she hissed, looking over her shoulder at him as he stood back to undo the buttons of his dress shirt, but as soon as she started to take her hands off of the glass of the window, he leaned forward and pressed them back flat.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I do," he told her, an angry sneer on his face. It was an expression normally saved only for players like Avery or Ovechkin, guys he didn't like, guys that made him angry. He was angry now. "I still want you to tell me," he growled in her ear, using his foot to kick hers' farther apart. "I want to hear you say it out, _out loud_." He added, using one hand to free his now painfully hard cock while his other hand slid up beneath the hem of his jersey to find the inside of her thigh. She shook her head again, making her hair fall over her eyes. He slid his fingers along the outside of the lace of her panties, feeling the heat of her skin through them and how wet the small piece of fabric was that covered her pussy lips. He listened to her suck her breath in between her teeth as he pressed his fingers up against that magic little button that made her entire body shiver and smiled. "Tell me, Edie," he whispered into her ear, replacing his fingers with shaft, sliding it along the outside of her panties. The lace felt rough on his sensitive skin but the whimper she emitted more than made up for a little discomfort on his part. "Tell me, please."

* * *

"I don't want to get...attached," she nearly sobbed as she admitted it, knowing it was already far too late to avoid it.

"And are you?" she heard him ask as his chest pressed against her back, as his massive thighs came into contact with hers' and as she felt his arm slide around her waist, holding her to him like an anaconda. "Are you feeling...attached?" He used the word she had used but she knew, just by the way he said it, that he knew at best it was an acronym at best.

"It's only been one night...it's not...it isn't..._aaaah_." His strong, thick fingers slid the lace of her panties aside and he nudged just the head of his cock into her entrance.

"Tell me...tell me again what it's not?" he whispered in ear, his mouth brushing over her cheek as he held her still against him. Her body felt like a coiled spring, like she was energy held in place waiting to be released if he would only fulfill the promise that his body was just beginning to make. One more inch, fuck, even half a fucking inch and she felt like she would let go.

"You tell me. Tell me what you think it is," she hissed back at him, mad now that he was teasing her, that she had given in and made herself available only to have him do this, make her crazy like this.

"No," he laughed in her ear, a deep, masculine throaty sound. "I'm crystal clear on how I feel. I want to know if you are." It was a challenge and from a professional athlete no less. He had control and he knew it. He also clearly knew he was driving her towards the tipping point, the point of no return. Edie felt like she was running towards a car crash, not away from it. She wanted not to want to. She wanted the logical part of her brain that usually worked better than this to kick in. She wanted to earn her moniker of Miss Intense now, but even as that thought entered her mind she knew that the only way she was going to earn that was to feel intensely, physically and...

"I don't want to have feelings," she began, the words forced between her teeth.

"That's more like it." She could hear the grin clear in his voice as he rewarded her by easing another few inches of his massive member into her. Edie gasped and shut her eyes. She was still tender from last night and this morning, but that wasn't it, or not exactly. It just felt so god damn good that she couldn't help but make those noises for him. "Who do you have feelings for, exactly?" he asked as his fingers slid up into her folds, searching for her clit. When he found it her entire body went rigid, her muscles tightened and it was his turn to gasp.

"It can't happen like this. This kind of thing doesn't happen," she mumbled grasping at the last shreds of her dignity, even as her hands clawed at the smooth, cold glass, looking for purchase. There was nothing to hold onto. There was only his arm, around her waist, like a vice. She could feel his bicep pressing into her ribs. It was impressive, but then almost everything about him was. "Not even in movies," she whined and wondered if she was telling him or only herself.

"When I saw you again tonight," he whispered in her ear, his long fingers making slow, deliberate circles around her clit that were making it hard to breathe, "I couldn't believe it. I haven't been that happy since...well, since The Cup." Damn, Edie shut her eyes and pressed her forehead to the cool glass pane. He was comparing her to The Cup, the holy grail of hockey, the only prize that really mattered to any red blooded Canadian. It made her head reel. "When I came back today...when you were gone, it hurt." He was letting her in and she knew for a guy like him that that was a prize in and of itself, a nugget of sincerity and truth to be cherished. "I want you Edie, do you want me?"

Edie curled one hand into a fist and slammed it into the glass. It wasn't fair. Things like this didn't happen. Girls...no, women like her didn't get real Prince Charmings. Fairy tales were just that, stories and love at first sight was just a myth, wasn't it?

* * *

"Yesss, damn you, yesss!"

She reached back and curled her fingers around his neck, or as much of it as she could, and directed his lips to her neck. He obliged with teeth and tongue and lips even as he slowly screwed himself all the way into her tight little pussy. Her high heels helped with the angle but as high as they were she was still going up onto tip toes to accommodate him and with each thrust he was nearly lifting her off of her feet but he couldn't stop and he was damn sure she didn't want him to.

She was tight and hot and wet and she fit around him like a glove. It felt good, as good, maybe better than he remembered, except for the jersey. His jersey rubbed against his chest as he drove into her and the numbers, his number, rubbed uncomfortably at his bare skin. He let go of her waist long enough to push the heavy material up her back, but it only slid down again. Using both hands he pushed the jersey up to her shoulders and dragged it off the rest of the way and tossed it to the floor somewhere behind them.

She was naked now, except for the boots and the garters and the panties that were also in the way. He grabbed at the thin, flimsy material at her hips and pulled, hard. She squeaked but it came free, tearing away from her skin, shredding in his fingers. He tossed the remains to the floor and then turned his attention to her reflection in the glass before him.

Her skin looked especially pale, almost luminescent in the dark, especially in contrast to her black boots and the black lace and ribbons on her thighs. Her full, round breasts swayed with each thrust and her eyes seemed to be feel of stars, the streetlights and lights from the surrounding high rises filling in the dark spaces. He wondered if anyone could see and didn't care. Fuck them if they could. They'd just be jealous. He knew he would be if he was in their shoes.

"You feel amazing," he told her, one hand on her shoulder, the other sliding around to her abdomen, where he pressed down on her pelvic bone, heightening the sensation for them both. He didn't want to, didn't want to miss a moment of watching her biting on her full bottom lip or squeezing her eyes shut and tipping her head back as she rode wave after wave of pleasure but it felt so damn good that he had to shut his own eyes and stop, just for a second or two otherwise he was going to lose control.

"Harder, shit Jonathan...fuck me harder." He'd thought girls only said shit like that in pornos, especially the ones that Burish and Kaner liked with the really big fake titted girls but then he'd never been with a woman as uninhibited as Edie before. He liked that she would tell him what she needed, what she wanted. He wanted her to feel as good as he did so he obliged, grabbing her waist in both of his hands and leaning back so he could really drill her, so that he could take long, hard strokes, his body meeting hers' with a loud slapping sound. "Yes! Fuck, yes!" she cried out, her hands pressed flat to the window but her body bent further forward so that she was pressing her ass back into him.

He watched her reflection in the mirror as she opened her mouth in a soundless cry and he ramped up the pace. He knew he wasn't going to last much longer and he was almost sure by the way he could feel her muscles sucking at his cock like a popsicle that she was almost ready to go too. He dug his fingers into her pale flesh and redoubled his efforts, slamming into her at a frenzied pace until he felt her body clamp down around his and then he was lost. With one more, hard, deep thrust, he called out her name and shoved himself as deep into her sweet, warm wet tunnel and let himself go.


	12. Chapter 12

_I trust all of you enjoyed some time with la familia and got some prezzies, drank some cocoa and had some chocolates etc. I know some of you have been snowed in and probably been thinking about JT keeping you warm but I'm back now so here goes._

**Chapter 12**

"You _do_ have a really nice view from here," she sighed as she looked out at the sparkling city lights of Chicago. She was curled up against him on the couch in his living room her head on his chest, cuddled under a fleece throw.

"I have a _great_ view right here," he responded, his arm tightening around her shoulders until she looked up into his face. He wasn't looking out at the city, just down at her. He was wearing a smug expression and his grin only got wider when she rolled her eyes at him. He slid his other arm behind his head and let out a satisfied sounding sigh.

"I thought you were Captain Serious, not Captain Smart Ass," she gave his washboard stomach a slap but he didn't so much as wince.

"According to _you_ I'm Captain Love Machine," he reminded her and Edie squealed and pressed her forehead to the centre of his chest to hide the flame of embarrassment that immediately coloured her face. She didn't remember saying it, but then it seemed he had the ability to make her do a lot of things she had no intention of doing. She heard him laugh and looked up into his easy grin and knew that while the whole smug thing was real, and he did have every right to be proud of himself, that if she had said it, it hadn't gone to his head. He really was a good down to earth Canadian kid underneath his usually cool, calm and composed exterior. "So, do you think you could get used to this?" he asked, out of the blue, ripping her out of her happy place and dropping her back into reality.

"Don't Jon, please," she muttered, extricating herself from the blanket and reaching for the nearest thing to cover herself with, his jersey. She heard his heavy, unhappy sounding sigh and then she felt the back of the jersey being tugged on and the next thing she knew, she was sitting in his lap with his muscular arms around her like a seatbelt, cinched.

"Why not?" he asked as his grip on her tightened when she struggled to free herself. "We could go all night pretending we don't have to deal with it, or we can talk about it now," he added, sliding one arm beneath and around her legs and tightening his arm around her waist until she couldn't move.

"Or we could just have a really great night and not deal with it at all," she suggested in a small voice, staring purposefully at the view despite the fact that she could feel his gaze boring a hole in her soul.

"Maybe _you_ could," he replied in a tone that suggested that he didn't think much about that option or her for wanting to hold fast to it.

"It's not an option Jon, you know it's not," she hissed through clenched teeth, furiously blinking away a flood of tears she could feel was about to fall. "It's not even worth talking about."

"So you have thought about it too," he sighed and pressed his forehead to her shoulder like he was relieved. Maybe it was that he'd said 'too' meaning that he'd also been wondering how to prolong this momentary madness or maybe it was the way he clung to her when he said it but either way, Edie felt herself give in and melt into his embrace.

"Even if I have...I live in Vancouver...everything I have is there and I don't even know you," she whined into his neck as he gathered her closer as her body relaxed into his arms.

"You know more about me than I do about you," he whispered into her hair, "I'm the one with the multimillion dollar contract that should be worried about asking a total stranger to move in with me."

"Move in with...?" Edie struggled until she was straddling his lap and was looking down into his handsome face, with its' open and honest features. She didn't have to ask if he meant it. It was written all over the hopeful, boyish grin on his face. Closing her eyes and heaving another sigh, Edie shook her head. "That's insane. You've spent a few hours with me. You can't...I hardly know you and I wouldn't let you do that!" she insisted, opening her eyes to find his grin had grown rather than shrunk. "Why? Why are you grinning like that?"

"Because you care about me," he grinned as wide as the Cheshire cat and Edie growled in frustration.

"You're like some kind of puppy following me home no matter how many times I try and kick you," she snarled, balling her hands into fists and slamming them onto his shoulders. For his part, Jon just kept smiling, like either it didn't hurt or he didn't care if it did. "For all you know I'm some kind of lunatic stalker who talked you into sleeping with me or some kind of gold digging whore who's just after your money. No! Stop grinning like that. It's just sex, you don't know me," she insisted but was unable to fight back when he captured her face in his hands and pulled her down into a long, slow, wet kiss that left her unable to form another argument. Her entire body literally melted into his, her arms slipping around his neck, a groan morphing into a long, low moan as his cock stirred against her belly.

"I have never, ever in my life felt this out of control," he whispered against her lips, "and I never thought I'd like it, but I do," he added, his hands sliding down over her shoulders and down her back until they were cupping her buttocks, moving her up and over him.

She felt her body welcoming him, fitting over and around him as he lowered her slowly down until their bodies met again and Edie let out a gasp. She kept expecting to get used to the idea of his filling her completely, of his size and god like proportions but each and each and every time it felt like it was new, like it was happening for the first time. She closed her eyes as his mouth closed over her the pulse in her neck and she felt the sting of his teeth digging into her flesh. She dug her own fingernails into his upper arms and moved, sliding up onto her knees, feeling her body unwillingly letting him slide almost free until his hands pushed down on her hips and forced her back down over him.

_Is this what it's like to do crack_, Edie wondered as he pushed up into her while she pressed down onto him, forcing the air from her longs in another involuntary gasp. Could she get used to this? She knew the answer. Yes, yes and a thousand times more yes. Yes to his body, with all of its thick, round muscles. Yes to the mole beneath his mouth. Yes to his crooked grin and even yes to silly little boy hair cut and especially yes to intensely serious gaze when he talked about hockey.

His hands slid up her back, taking the jersey with it, and for the second time she helped him take it off of her and dropped it onto the floor beside the couch and then watched as his lips closed around her nipple. Edie dug her fingers into his scalp and shut her eyes. Yes, she could get used to having her brains fucked out of her head on a regular basis even if it meant she'd always be just a little bit tender down there.

"Yessss, oh fuck yessss," she cried as he bit down on her nipple just hard enough for the pain to momentarily overcome the amazing sensation of his dick filling her completely, stretching her, reaching places no other man had ever touched inside of her. Oh hell yes she could get used to this.

* * *

"Yes to this?" he asked, his soft, wet tongue circling her other nipple before he sucked that one into his mouth while he used his stomach muscles and leg muscles to push up from the couch, so that she really had to hold on whiles she rode him. She nodded as she bit down on her bottom lip and whimpered. Her back bowed, offering her breasts to him on a plate and he sucked and nibbled on them while he watched a myriad of expressions pass over her beautiful face and with each thrust he sent the telepathic message: '_stay'_.

He'd never really enjoyed the whole bachelor life the way Kaner or some of the other guys he'd played with seemed to, though he'd long ago gotten used to being on his own. There had always seemed to be something missing, but before last night he'd thought he'd just been sort of homesick.

"Stay," he said out loud, steadying he in his arms as he got up, waiting for her to wrap her legs around his waist before he took the two or three steps it took to get to the window where he could press her up against the cold pane of glass, knocking over his guitar in the process. "Stay with me, stay _here_," he begged as he fastened his mouth to hers and pressed himself as far into her as he could. He loved the way her breasts felt, pressed softly against his chest. He loved the weight of her ass in his hands. He loved feeling lost inside of her. He loved...he loved her.

"No... No it's crazy you don't know...umph!" He slammed into her, feeling the pane of glass shudder against them as he rammed his cock into the depths of her hot little honey pot.

"You're independent," he told her, emphasizing each word with a short, hard thrust. "You're kind of crazy," he added with a grin, "intense, funny, smart and beautiful." His gaze held hers while he watched her gaze soften until her eyes looked like liquid gems. "And I'm falling so hard for you it's a little fucking scary, I'll admit that," he told her before pressing his mouth over hers' to muffle her objection. "Tell me you feel something," he begged, but she just shook her head, her eyes squeezed shut so he couldn't read her thoughts. "Give me something Edie," he whispered with his mouth on her ear as he felt the rising tide of the orgasm threatening to spill over. He didn't want to go under without something, some sign, a word...

"It's not fair to ask me now," she panted, the fingers of one hand splayed on the back of his head while the other fingers dug into his back.

"But I am," he grinned, that sixth sense he'd learned to believe in tingling in the base of his brain, telling him that he was close to winning. "I am asking you Edie. If you don't feel anything..."

"Fuck you, you know that's not true," she whimpered, her heels digging into his ass, like a rider egging on a horse.

"So tell me," he asked again, breathlessly as he tried to hold himself still which was against the message every neurotransmitter in his body was sending. "Tell me how you feel." He pulled back enough to search her face and found her looking back at him, her careful mask slipping as her bottom lip trembled. "Please Edie," he whispered against her mouth ad she sobbed and shook her head.

"It's impossible," she whimpered, shaking her head again. Growling in frustration, Jon was ready to give up, to put her back on her feet and tell her to get dressed and leave, but just as he began to loosen his grip on her, she hiccupped and he looked back up into her face. "I don't want to feel like this..., I don't want to fall for a fucking Hawk." She was crying now, but she was also smiling through her tears. Jon grinned back at her and then, capturing her mouth with his, he turned and took her back to the couch and laid her down, carefully.

"Fall," he whispered, sliding back into her, his mouth hovering over hers'. "Fall and I promise that I'll catch you." He kissed her and slid his tongue over and around hers' and their bodies fell into a still new but familiar rhythm. Their bodies met and parted slowly while he tasted her tears on her lips. He didn't ask for anything more, but he knew he was going to, that they would both have to before the night was over, but for now, Jon let the wave wash them both to shore and he fell, satisfied for now, into her arms whispering her name as he let himself go.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Jon winced as he tried to stretch and found that he ached in places he had never ached even after game six against Phillie. He'd never slept on the couch before and he made a mental note not to do it again even as he buried his face in Edie's soft fragrant hair. If he had to do two hours on the table with physio, it had been worth it to wake up with her warm body curled into his.

"Morning babe," he whispered into her hair. She made a purring sound in response, backed her ass into him and pulled his arms tighter around her. He smiled and pressed a kiss to the nape of her neck. "Well at least you're not trying to take off," he added, maybe a little too hopefully because she let out a long frustrated sounding groan.

"What time is it?" she asked, groggily, yawning and wriggling like she wanted to get free. Jon tightened his arms around her and refused to let her move. "Mmm Jon, you know I _have_ to go," she moaned, going very still, like she was mad at him for stopping her from going.

"No, I know you seem pretty determined to go but I know you don't have to go," he told her, his heart beginning to hammer in his chest in panic.

"I have a flight to catch," she reminded him with a sigh, but at the same time she pressed her lips to the back of his arm.

"Flights can be cancelled or rebooked," he told her quietly and she grumbled and even laughed.

"Yeah but work…that's not so easily fixed," she chuckled, rolling in his arms until she was facing him. She lay on her back and he leaned on his elbow and looked down at her. At least she wasn't running but his pulse was still racing, knowing that she was planning to leave, no matter what arguments he came up with. It was a helpless feeling and he hated it.

"Okay, what do you do?" he asked and watched her roll her eyes and shake her head. "Humor me. Just tell me." She sighed again but he could tell by the way her full mouth turned, just that little bit, that she was giving in, on this at least.

"I work for this marketing company that works with beverage companies, beer companies, that kind of thing," she explained with an expression on her face that clearly said she didn't expect him to understand.

"So _that's_ why you were meeting with the Wirtz's," he smiled, feeling proud of himself for getting the association right away. "So we talk to them. I'm sure they have contacts, and if that fails, you could probably be an ice girl." He didn't even duck when she reached up and gave him a playful slap on his upper arm.

"Yeah, you'd like that huh? Me shakin' my groove thing out there for everyone to see," she rolled those emerald green eyes of hers' again and this time he laughed.

"Maybe not," he told her quietly, dropping a soft kiss onto each eyelid. "I don't want to share you, _at all_," he added, pulling the blanket up over them both and cuddling beneath it, pulling her close. "C'mon, stay. We'll figure everything out," he promised her, partly because he believed it and partly because he was desperate to have her believe it too. She pressed her forehead to his shoulder and let out a moan.

"Stop it," she whined. She was saying it but the way her hand was sliding up his back and her body was naturally relaxing against his, accommodating his, was telling him something else entirely.

"Why? Am I getting through to you, finally?" he whispered against her temple and felt more than heard her laugh.

"You know I like this," she admitted, clinging to him. He wanted to relax, feeling like she was finally choosing him but until she said she was staying, he didn't want to hope for too much. "But I just don't feel like it's real. I feel like…," she laid back and met his gaze with tears in her eyes. "I feel like this is a perfect moment in time and if we try to make it into something else…than we're probably just going to fuck it up." Jon knew what it meant to not want something too much, but he'd won a gold medal and the Cup and he had learned to get over those feelings. He'd also figured out a long time ago that his friends who hadn't had the same experiences, hadn't grown up playing sports competitively had more trouble visualizing positive outcomes. He could already see it, her being here when he came home from practice, from games, but she was already spooked, so he didn't tell her.

"I think you're over thinking it," he told her, brushing the back of his hand along her cheekbone.

"_I _am?" she laughed and leaned into his hand. "You're planning out my job interviews and I can see what's going on in that brain of yours," she added, tapping his temple with her finger. "You're already calling the moving van in your head, I can see it." He didn't want to lie because he had been imaging what his apartment would look like with girl stuff everywhere and what his mom would think of another woman's touch around the place.

"It could be good," he told her seriously and bent to touch his lips to hers' but she pressed her fingers to his mouth and pushed back.

"I think you're crazy and…and sexy and cute and so…_so_ amazing and this is all doing my head in," she told him honestly and then pulled him down for a long, soft kiss that stirred his blood at the same as it made his heart ache. She was going to leave. He was pretty sure she didn't want to but he was also damn sure she was going to anyway.

* * *

Edie pulled back when Jon didn't kiss her back. She looked up into his teddy bear brown eyes and knew that she'd popped their little bubble. Gone was the playful, sexy expression in his eyes. It was replaced by something serious and something hurt.

"Don't," she plead quietly, reaching up to touch his cheek. "I have like three hours," she added, glancing towards the glowing time on the PVR. "Can't we just…." Jonathan shook his head, and pushed up and away from her.

"You should probably go," he said coolly, grabbing his pants off of the floor and pulling them on. Edie pulled the throw up around her chest and sat up. She stared at him, fighting her first impulse to get up and run her fingers over his wide chest, to wrap her arms around his waist and hold him, erase the unhappy expression he was currently wearing but then, she knew, she would be being just as contrary to reality as he was.

"Jon…I'm just trying to be realistic. I mean this has been fucking amazing but…," she bit her lip when his expression went from upset to pissed off, real anger flaring in his eyes.

"But what? I like you, you like me, but it's just sex, is that it?" He wore an expression she'd seen him wear when Kevin Bieksa or one of the other Canuck D was pushing him around. He didn't like it much and he wasn't going to put up with it.

"I'm not a spontaneous kinda girl," she tried to explain. "_This_ is probably the most impulsive I've ever been. I just don't think we should push our luck." If it was humanly possible, Edie expected to see steam come out of his ears as Jon's glare turned to an actual look of fury, little red dots appearing on the apples of his cheeks as he made a very unhappy face.

"Get your shit," he repeated in an abrupt tone before he disappeared into another room. Edie sat in the dark and listened to him send a ping pong ball into the wall, hard.

"Damn," she said quietly, blinking back tears. She dropped her head into her hands and cursed her own pride silently. "It's just sex," she told herself, but even as the words came out of her mouth she knew it was bullshit. In that moment, she knew she wanted to be in that other room with him, in his arms, and that there was nowhere else in the world that she wanted to be. "Damn it," she grumbled, smacking her forehead against her hands and clenching her teeth. "Okay…okay fuck it!" Taking a deep breath she stood up, let the blanket fall and walked across the room, down the hall and into the room where Jon was still hammering ping pong balls into the wall, leaving little dents behind. "Jon," she called, waiting for him to turn and then, "Jon," she said louder, turning her hands into a bull horn. "Damn it, Jon I'm naked here!" She watched him stop, put the paddle down on the table and lean forward, his back to her, his amazing ass staring her straight in the face.

"What?" he growled. She could see the tension in his muscles and her hands clenched and unclenched as she fought the urge to go and run her hands over his skin.

"Two weeks…I looked," she began, pursing her lips as she admitted that she'd thought of this. "Two week…well, almost three and you're playing in Vancouver. If we can…if we can figure this…whatever this is by then and when you get to Vancouver and we still…we want _this,_" she moved forward and slid her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek to the middle of his back, "and you get me that interview…then…oh fuck, then yeah…we'll see." He was still tense, but Edie was sure that she felt him relaxing by inches.

"Yeah?" His voice was muffled but she didn't miss the hopeful but guarded note in his voice.

"Is a frog's ass water tight?" she asked, grinning and he finally laughed.

"Jezus Christ Ede's," he grumbled as he turned around pulled her into his arms. "You have no idea how fucking relieved I am to hear you fucking say that," he whispered into the crown of her head. His arms clamped around her until she thought she'd never be able to breathe again and then he loosened his grip just enough to let her look up at him so that he could press his soft lips over hers'.

The kiss started out soft, slow and sweet, like melted caramel, but as if he was suddenly reminded that she was naked in his house, he parted her lips with his tongue and Edie suddenly felt herself lifted onto the ping pong table. He stepped between her legs and deepened the kiss. Edie wrapped her legs around him and did the same with her arms. Sliding her hands up the smooth skin of his back, she dug her fingers into his hair and he responded with a moan as he began to press his growing erection against her, the wool of his suit pants rough against her pussy lips.

"Shit…I've wanted to do this since I bought the thing," he breathed, his hands fumbling with the fly of his crumpled suit pants. Edie grinned at his efforts and then grew impatient and batted his hands away. He groaned as she freed him, her hand cupping his heavy length, guiding it between her legs and then it was her turn to groan. Edie sucked in a ragged breath between her teeth. "You okay?" he asked, his big meaty hands digging into her thighs, his lips brushing hers'.

"Kind of…no, let's be honest, more than a little tender," she hissed as she locked her ankles at the small of his back.

"You don't…don't want me to stop do you?" he asked in a very young, very boyish way, the words saying he would, the expression on his face making it clear that he couldn't even if he wanted to.

"No," she replied, smiling up at him as she slowly lay back on the green table, reaching for the edge with one hand and the net with the other. "If this is gonna be the last time for three weeks you better make sure I can't do this again until you see me in Vancouver."

* * *

"I hate this," he told her honestly as they stood together at the departure gate. His own plane was waiting on the tarmac, his teammates were already boarding. Coach had raised his eyebrow when Jon had asked for an extra few minutes to walk her to the gate, but had acquiesced. Jon didn't often ask for favors. "I wish I knew I was coming back tomorrow to you."

"The only way we're going to know, for sure, if whatever we're feeling is more than just heat," she began, looking down at where their fingers were twined, "is to get a little space. That doesn't mean that you can't send me racy text messages from the showers after the game," she added a little more playfully, her free hand sliding up under his suit jacket to feel the warmth coming off of him in waves.

"Only if you'll do the same," he asked and then immediately went a very bright shade of crimson that could best be described as tomato. He was already imagining it, she could tell, and made a mental note to figure out how to use the timer on her digital camera back home.

"And we'll talk on the phone, maybe skype?" she prompted and he nodded the crimson tide rising from beneath his collar, darkening the already deep shade of scarlet that was colouring his face as her hand slid down to cup his right butt cheek. He was looking around nervously and it was only then that Edie reminded herself that he wasn't just some cute guy that had picked her up at the bar. He was _the_ Jonathan Toews and this was his backyard. Chicago had adopted him and made him one of their own. Canoodling in public was probably frowned upon by his handlers and he was certainly making it obvious it wasn't something he was comfortable doing and yet he _was_ doing it, for her. "You have to go," she said quietly, taking a step back and removing her hand from his so that she could straighten his tie. He looked down at her fingers and then gathered them all into his own and kissed each and every knuckle on both of her hands before he met her gaze again.

"I know you think I don't mean it when I say it," he told her softly, his big dark eyes full of such intensely earnest emotions that Edie forced herself to remain silent, not to argue, even though she knew what was coming. "I think I am in love with you and I know that three weeks isn't going to change that. In fact," that crooked smile of his reappeared suddenly and Edie found that she was completely helpless to do anything other than to grin back at him, "it's probably just going to make you fall in love with me more than you are already." She rolled her eyes. It had come out of her mouth, despite her best efforts not to say it out loud when he'd brought her for what had seemed like the hundredth time on his ping pong table. She hadn't had the energy to fight the raw unchecked emotions that had overwhelmed her when he'd gathered her up like a rag doll into his massive arms and carried her into his bed and held her there. What else could a girl have said to him in that moment? It had been true then and as he grinned mischievously at her now, it was still true.

"Yeah well, we'll see about that," she shrugged and did her best to look unaffected. He laughed and the next thing she knew, he was dragging her up off of her feet and covering her mouth with his. Edie wrapped her arms around his neck and kicked up her heels. She almost hoped someone was taking their picture. She was willing to bet they looked as cute as a button right about now and not like they'd worn each other out and wouldn't be walking straight for a week. "You have to go," she reminded him as he put her down.

"So do you," he said seriously with a glance over her shoulder at the long line that was slowly moving towards the security gate. "We'll talk later?" he asked again as she leaned into his hand where he had reached up to brush her hair back behind her ear.

"As soon as I get off the plane, and as soon as you get off the ice, no matter what time, okay?" He nodded and then kissed her forehead, each eyelid and the tip of her nose before leaving her with a soft, barely there kiss before he turned like he was being forced at gun point, and walked away, back towards the doors that would lead him to that waiting golf cart that would take him to the Hawks' waiting plane.

Edie watched him go and for the first time in her life knew what John Dunne had meant in that poem she'd had to memorize for Lit twelve:

_If they be two, they are two so_  
_As stiff twin compasses are two ;_  
_Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show_  
_To move, but doth, if th' other do. _

_And though it in the centre sit,_  
_Yet, when the other far doth roam,_  
_It leans, and hearkens after it,_  
_And grows erect, as that comes home. _

_Such wilt thou be to me, who must,_  
_Like th' other foot, obliquely run;_  
_Thy firmness makes my circle just,_  
_And makes me end where I begun_


	14. Chapter 14

_Happy New Year y'all! Sorry 'bout the writer's block. It's actually pretty rare for me but I'm putting it down to p h sd (post holiday stress disorder)! Hopefully it's all gone now!_

**Chapter 14**

"You're doing it again." Jon smiled. Every time she used that tone he knew he was racking up points.

"What's that?" he asked, though he knew what the answer was going to be. Her exasperated sigh did nothing to quash his happy grin.

"You're being adorable. I don't think I've ever had flowers delivered to me at work before." Jon put a mental check next to flower on his list. Kaner had said it would be too much, but Jon was quickly finding out that what his road roommate knew about women could be fit in a thimble. "All the girls are jealous. Did you pick out the arrangement yourself?"

"Well, I decided roses were kind of cliché, and then I thought I'd get you something more rare, kinda more like you." That made her laugh, which resulted in his grin broadening and Pat rolling off his bed while making a loud, guttural sound of disgust as he limped towards the door. He'd had ample opportunity to do that lately and just as he had all of the other times, Jon paid absolutely no attention to it. "So you like the daisies okay?"

"I really do. I don't know how _rare_ they are, but I do like them better than I would have liked roses," she replied in a tone that told him that not only was she telling the truth, but that she was smiling too. He felt sort of proud of himself for making her smile, even though that had been the goal. "So…it's the baby Oilers tonight?" she asked, like she was trying to extend the conversation. Jon slid down on the hotel bed and stared up at the ceiling. He hadn't planned to be able to have one of their long, rambling, changing topics every five minutes kind of conversations, what with her being at work, but he was happy to talk as long as she could.

"Coach says should be an easy one. Then two days in Calgary, woohoo," he sighed and listened while she laughed. "Are you sure you can't fly out?"

"Well you have a choice," she chuckled. "I either join you in Calgary, or I fly out with you after the game here and have two days in Vegas with you. Your choice," she added with another chuckle. Like there was any choice. Ever since Coach had thrown out that particular little carrot, he hadn't been able to think of anything else but being locked in a massive hotel room with her for two whole days. "Of course that does mean you have to win here doesn't it?" she prompted and that made Jon's heart sink. The Canucks had been playing really well lately and the Nucks had just snuck by them in their last game, in a shootout. Still, he wasn't the only player that was ready to kick some ass to get some down time.

"Duncs keeps warning me that you're just trying to drag me to one of those all night wedding chapels," he admitted. The guys had been hoping to get a rise out of him by saying it, it hadn't worked when they'd first brought it up and the idea still didn't do more than raise the smallest of butterflies in his stomach.

"Well you tell Duncs he can be best man," she laughed. He could tell that she didn't give the idea a second thought. Funnily enough he had given it a second and even a third thought.

"I think Sharpie's feelings would be hurt," he told her seriously, but she only laughed it off.

"I thought you were gonna say Kaner's was going to be jealous," she said as if she meant it. As if he'd ask Kaner to do something that serious.

* * *

"Pat would never be able to pull something like that off with a straight face." Edie's pen stopped in the middle of the page. He was dead serious. Not that she didn't whole heartedly agree, Patrick Kane was the kind of best man who'd tie a guy naked to a telephone pole with a skipping rope and leave him there. But Jon's tone was more serious than just dismissing his on the road roomie for being a party boy.

"You're not…you're not actually…you don't think that we…?" she bit down on her bottom lip as she felt panic rising in her chest.

"I could lie," he said quietly and there was silence. Silence as she stared at the photos sliding by on her computer monitor. Silence as she knew that he was waiting for her to respond. Looking down at her notebook, she found the page in front of her covered in hearts and flowers and his initials intertwined with her own. "Okay, awkward," he mumbled, sounding distinctly unhappy.

"You have to…I mean…we haven't even seen each other again," she pointed out in a strangled voice. Part of her brain told her to hang up the phone, climb under her desk and stick her thumb in her mouth. The other part wanted to jump on top of her desk and tell her whole office that Captain Serious wanted to marry her. She'd never felt quite so bipolar in her entire life.

"I guess I'm just saying that you make me think things like that," he told her in that deep, masculine timbre that made her heart swell in her chest.

"When do I get to meet this Captain Serious who never does anything outrageous?" she asked, shaking her head. The Jonathan Toews she knew was not the serious, safe, boring one she kept reading about on the internet.

"If you even consider it, probably never," he told her and she could hear that boyish grin she knew so well reappearing. Closing her eyes, Edie pictured him with his lopsided grin, the mole just below his mouth, a sort of sparkle in his dark eyes as he looked down at her.

"I'm going to go back to work now before you say something you can't take back," she mumbled and heard him laugh It really wasn't fair. She had never been one of those annoying giggling girly girls who turned bright red the minute a guy so much as looked at her but he had turned her into that girl.

"Who says I'd want to?" he asked her, and this time she was sure he was laughing at her and not with her. He was beginning to like having the upper hand on her. She was going to have to figure out some way to regain the high ground.

"Aren't you supposed to be having a nap or something?" she squeaked, sliding further down in her chair and shading her overheated face with her hand as Carolyn's head appeared over the top of her divider.

"How can I sleep after talking to you?" he growled, making the butterflies in her stomach erupt in a fury of beating wings.

"Do whatever you have to do to…y'know, take care of that," she hissed, trying, in vain, not to think about him lying alone in bed, taking himself in hand. Her entire body pulsed at the thought. "And then get some sleep so you won't embarrass yourself out there and then," she added in a softer voice, crouching further in her chair and cupping her hand around the business end of her headset, "if you're a very, _very_ good boy, I might help you with that…ummm…_issue_ again later."

"Does that mean I have to score?" he asked in that teasing sort of way that caused her to think of him with that silly grin on his face that turned her into a quivering mass of jelly every time she saw it. It was a deliberate double entendre. He knew and she knew it.

"Oh…you'll score," she mumbled and felt her entire body clench as a vision of him moving over her, all of his muscles flexing and extending with each thrust. "If you're good, I mean."

"I seem to remember you telling me that I'm pretty good," he continued to tease her.

"Stop," she hissed, undecided if she should be angry at him for choosing to torture her at work or if it was just the torture in general that was giving her the throbbing headache right behind her eyes.

"Okay, okay. I'll be a good boy and have my nap so that my girlfriend will talk to me later." Girlfriend, she still wasn't used to that word. It made her stomach hurt, in a good way.

"Make sure Pat tucks you in," she added, making him laugh.

"What? No bedtime story?" he prompted, making her squirm. Nearly every night since they'd parted at O'Hare all of their phone calls had ended up in heavy breathing and self-conscious giggling.

"Later," she hissed, feeling her entire face get hot. Three days was going to seem like an eternity.

"Mmm, is that a promise?" he growled in that deep sexy voice and suddenly that vision was back in her head, of him, alone on a bed in a hotel room, his long, thick cock in his hand.

"I have to go…really. Shit, Jon, you can _not_ do this to me at work," she insisted, feeling as if every set of eyes in the office were on her and that they could all tell what she was thinking.

"Okay babe, I'll let you go," he laughed, at her expense but not in a mean way. "But I am going to take you up on that bed time story later," he added with that edge to his voice that he used when he made her tell him when and how hard she was going to cum. Edie's feet were up on her chair and her forehead was pressed to her knees as she hugged them to her chest.

"Okay, I really have to go now," she squeaked and then hung up to the sound of him laughing on the other end of the line.

"Oh. My. God. Who the hell are you and what in the _fuck_ have you done with my friend Eden?" Edie looked up at Carolyn and smiled.

"I think I'm in love."

* * *

"You were right Kaner." Jon looked up to find a group of his teammates standing at the foot of his bed. "She's totally fucking with his head."

The smile he'd been wearing while talking to Edie faded to a quizzical frown as he searched the faces of his teammates, Shooter, Greyhound, Jelly, Kaner and Soup. None of them so much as cracked a smile. He waited for one of them to break, watching their mouths for signs of a twitch, but as long as he waited, they just stood there, staring back at him.

"What?" He looked at Kane, because whatever this was, his curly haired teammate had obviously started it.

"You've been grinning like a dork ever since you met that chick," Jelly pointed out. Jon could only shrug. There was no argument to be had. He'd woken up smiling and gone to sleep smiling. The only time he wasn't grinning like a fat kid in a candy store was when he was on the ice, and even then….

"We're not saying that we're not happy for you," Shooter added more mildly with a quick glance over both shoulders at the guys beside him, "or that we haven't been saying that you should get some balance, have a relationship. I think we've all said that to you." That was true. Guys were always telling him that he needed to have something, anything besides hockey in his life. "But…," Sharpie shrugged and then sent a meaningful look towards Soup.

"We just think you may have gone a little overboard," Rusty shrugged, looking deadly serious, wearing the expression he often did when he was facing down a Kesler or a Crosby. Jon blinked and shook his head. The boys and the Coaches were always telling him there was more to life than hockey and here, the first time he actually tried finding something else they were actually telling him to cool his jets. It was hard to believe his ears.

"What Soup's trying to say, is that maybe you're a little distracted out on the ice," Greyhound was always straight to the point. He wasn't the kind of guy that pulled punches, and though he was full of shit a lot of the time, Jon was pretty sure Bolland was also a straight shooter, but it still hurt.

"Are you saying I'm sucking?" he asked, irritated and a little embarrassed at being called out. He couldn't remember the last time anyone questioned his work ethic, in fact, most of the time he was being told not to work himself to death, to ease up, even just a little.

"I wouldn't go that far," Shooter was trying his best not to make this too personal, Jon could tell. Sharpie had softened a lot since he got married.

"You're jerking it all into your sock and not putting it out on the ice." That was Pat. Bring it all down to the bottom denominator, making everything about sex. So, that's what this was about.

"So the first time I have a girlfriend and you don't…," Jon sneered at his mop topped friend and shook his head.

"We lost to the Rangers, then the fucking Devils," Kaner counted out the losses on his fingers. "Then we barely got by Atlanta, then lost to the fucking Oil and then the Desert Dogs and…."

"We beat the Ducks," Jon pointed out, running a finger behind the collar of his now rumpled dress shirt. It felt too tight. The room felt hot.

"You do see the pattern though, right Cap?" Greyhound looked at him with his shrewd, rat like eyes and Jon flinched.

"Yeah, I guess," he mumbled. _Jesus_, he wondered, _could they really be right_? "But uh…hey it's not all about me."

"No," Sharpie agreed with that 'everything's gonna be alright' smile, "but if Pat passes you the puck and you're off in dream land….?" Jon held up his hand. He'd heard enough. Or maybe he just didn't want to hear anymore.

"Maybe it's a little too intense," he shrugged and then, when Kaner gave him one of his patented eye rolls where there was nothing but the white's off his eyes, Jon sighed. "Okay…I'll cool it off, promise." Everyone but Pat seemed to be placated. "I won't call her 'til we get to the Coast. Okay?" Pat grinned and then tossed Jon jacket on his bed before herding the other guys out of the room. They were already talking about what movie to watch in Sharpie's room when the door closed with a click behind them. Jon stared at the closed door and cursed under his breath. ]

He was in love with Edie and he was pretty sure she was in love with him. He'd never felt anything like this in his entire life, except maybe when they won the Cup. That was a fucking amazing feeling and he didn't want to only feel that once in his life.

There had to be a balance, he thought to himself as he lay back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. He was probably just going at this whole relationship thing a hundred miles an hour, like he did everything, with too much intensity. All or fucking nothing. There had to be a happy medium.

There _had_ to be.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

He didn't call that night.

Edie lay on her bed, thinking up reasons that he couldn't call, like the taxi had gotten lost on the way to the airport or that the whole team was stuck in some freight elevator somewhere or a grain silo had fallen over on the team bus.

There were other things she was thinking too, less grisly things but gruesome all the same.

Things like another woman. Someone else held in those strong arms of his, sharing a narrow hotel bed, pressed beneath the width of his chest.

Edie closed her eyes and dismissed those thoughts. He wouldn't….

But she had to admit that he could. All professional athletes were rumored to be man whores but hockey players had a special reputation for having 'one in every port' as they said. She had a difficult time imagining the slightly geeky, somewhat awkward, polite young man she'd fallen for picking up some random puck fuck but….

But she could imagine some slut in a short skirt and way too high heels flipping her blonde hair and batting her fake eyelashes at him while Kaner plied Jon with drinks and the rest of the guys told him no one would know….

He'd called every night since they'd parted. She hadn't gone to sleep without the sound of his voice in her ear since they'd met and she couldn't sleep now. She just stared at the ceiling, wondering how many sheep she'd have to count before her brain just shut down and let her rest, let her stop thinking about some Calgary cow girl in painted on jeans grinding her ass into his lap, the whole time she clutched her phone in her hand, believing he would call, somehow…sometime.

* * *

Jon stared at his phone, sitting on the bedside table, shut off.

He wanted to call her. It felt strange not calling her, strange not hearing her voice while he lay in bed wishing she was there with him.

They'd talked every night since they'd boarded separate planes at O'Hare. They'd talked about everything from when they'd learned to walk to embarrassing stories about first kisses. They never seemed to run out of things to talk about. He felt like he could tell her anything, that she would understand and even if she didn't, she'd try, earnestly. That's what Edie was like, honest, straightforward and sincere.

He reached for his phone. One, phone call wouldn't hurt. He'd just keep it short, not get into all that what are you wearing and heavy breathing stuff. He'd just say goodnight, tell her he missed her. That would be okay, wouldn't it?

After all, they'd kicked some serious Oiler butt tonight. They'd put together a real sixlty minutes out there and he'd score a fucking hattie tonight. He deserved to talk to her.

"Don't even think about it."

Jon looked up to find Pat in the bed across from his staring him down.

"I just want to say goodnight," he explained. "That's totally all…just…that's it." Pat raised his eyebrow at him in that '_do you smellll what the Rock is cookin''_ kind of way and Jon slowly withdrew his hand. Looking smug, Pat closed his eyes and snuggle farther under his blanket. Jon sighed and rolled over to face the wall.

He wondered what she was doing. He wondered if she was asleep and if she was, if she was dreaming about him? He wanted to think that she was, and that she was missing him the way he was missing her. He hoped she'd seen the game, that she'd seen his hat trick and that she would be proud of him.

'_Oh to hell with it'_ he thought and rolled back over and reached for his phone, except it wasn't there. He narrowed his eyes at Pat who, without even opening his eyes, pushed Jon's phone under his pillow.

Growling in frustration, Jon got up and headed for the bathroom and a long, cold shower.

* * *

Edie woke up to the sound of her alarm clock blaring that annoying Katie Perry 'Fireworks' song. Wincing, she batted at the snooze button and then, having been successful in silencing the radio, she picked up her phone and, with one eye open, checked it for messages.

There was none. Not so much as a fucking text. There wasn't even a single missed call.

She stared at her phone for a long minute and did her best not to think the worst and then she put her phone down and rolled over and pulled the quilt up over her head.

"This is why you don't date," she reminded herself irritably, "because boys are stupid and they smell." She shut her eyes and bit back the automatic reply that came to her lips. '_But he smells so good, especially when he's just out of the shower and smells like soap and warm, boy skin_.' "You knew it couldn't last," she added, taking a deep breath and forcing herself up and out from under the quilt and into a sitting position. "It was a thing and now it's not a thing and you have to go to work and not think about it." '_Yeah, as if that is even remotely possible'_, she thought as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and into her slippers.

She wasn't going to get over it in a day, but if this is day one, she told herself as she pulled her black silk kimono on and headed for the bathroom, than it just wouldn't hurt as much tomorrow.

"Or maybe he'll call in like an hour and you'll feel like a total bitch for thinking badly of him," she thought out loud and then smiled at herself in her bathroom mirror. Her smile didn't last long and not just because of a big, ugly pussy zit that had just surfaced on her chin but because she didn't really believe in Prince Charming's and happy endings. "And maybe he won't," she told herself firmly , making a face at her reflection before she turned and reached into the shower to turn it on, hot, as hot as she could stand it.

Maybe she could scald away the memory of his hands on her skin.

Maybe. But probably not.

* * *

He felt like he was skating through quicksand. His arms felt leaden. His stick felt like it weighed at least a hundred pounds.

Jon leaned against his stick and watched Shooter and Kaner streaking down on Duncs and Turcs on a two on one drill. He didn't have their speed, even on a good day, but today he didn't think he could even manage to get a shot off. He felt like he was stuck in slow motion.

He'd torn the room apart while Kaner had been chowing down on his steak and eggs this morning and hadn't been able to find his phone. He wished he'd memorized her number or even the name of the place she worked but he wasn't good with numbers like that. Ask him to find the distance between two points on an isosceles triangle and he could probably do it in his head. Ask him a phone number and he'd pull out his iPhone.

"Still moping?" Kaner asked as he sent a shower of snow up Jon's leg. Jon looked down at the ice clinging to his socks and then up at his team mate's playful grin and it took every ounce of willpower Jon had not to pick him up by his shoulder pads and toss him against the glass.

"What if my mom calls? What if there's an emergency?" he asked, to which Kaner just shrugged.

"Then I'll let you talk to your mom," Pat just kept smiling, like it was no big deal. Jon ground his teeth together and took a deep breath through his nose, making his nostrils flare.

"Look I played great last night and I…."

"Yeah, exactly, so why fuck with that now huh?" Kaner grinned and pushed off, skating away across the ice. Jon stared after him, seriously considering using his stick like a spear.

"The kid has a point," Sharpie pointed out tentatively. Jon's only response was a feral growl. "Okay, okay," Patrick laughed and held up his gloved hands in defense. "I'll try and get the damn phone back for you. I know you're serious about this girl."

"I'm seriously gonna _kill_ him if I've messed this up now," Jon snarled.

"If she's written you off after one night she's not worth it, believe me," Sharpie laid his hand on Jon's shoulder. Jon shrugged it off.

"I'll be the judge of that," he replied coolly, and pushed off to join the drill.

* * *

Edie fingered the petals on the daisy nearest to her phone as she listened to one of her customers bitching about a delivery. She'd heard him bitch about every order for a year, so it was only a matter of making the right noises at the right time to get through it, which was a good thing, as her brain was definitely somewhere else.

She'd been doing her best not to think about Jon, or about why he hadn't called, but as soon as she'd sat down at her desk, the flowers were an immediate and constant reminder. She'd come up with a hundred and one reasons for his not calling that didn't include his sleeping with someone else, and yet, as she listened to her client complaining about the delivery time, she kept picturing some tramp leaving bubblegum pink lip gloss on his dick.

"Emon, I get it. No deliveries before noon. But you know what these douchebag truck drivers are like. I could give them all the directions in the world and they'd ignore every one of them." It was the right thing to say. It got her customer to the point where he calmed down enough that she could get him off the phone. "I know, I know. I'll speak to them…_again_," she mumbled, trying to sound tough but friendly. "Okay, I tell you what. I'll use a different delivery company for the next order, alright?" she added and then closed her eyes and let out a sigh. This was the last thing she needed today was this. "Good. Okay. Thanks for being so understanding." She hung up the phone and dropped her head onto her desk. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!"

"Okay, what happened to your happy I'm about to get laid in two days face?" Edie peered up with one eye towards Carolyn who was peering over the divider at her.

"He didn't call," she sighed and went back to banging her head gently on the edge of the desk.

"What? My boy lollipop? The good Canadian kid who looks like butter wouldn't melt in his fucking mouth didn't call you last night?" Edie shook her head and let out a pain filled moan.

"I hate that it matters. I hate that I care about it at all. I hate that I'm sitting here, worrying about it and I fucking hate him for making me feel this way," Edie spat, exasperated, with herself, with him.

"Oh my god, you're in love with him," Carolyn hissed, glancing around her to see if anyone else was listening. Edie opened her mouth to object but no words came out. To say she didn't would be a lie and she knew it. It didn't make her happy but she knew it was true. "Okay, so call him. Put yourself out of your misery for crying out loud." Edie turned her cheek so that she could see her phone sitting on the top of her in box. She stared longingly at it for a moment and then shook her head.

"I don't want to be needy. If he's busy…I mean…fuck, if I'm going to have a long distance relationship with…," she almost said his name, only managing to swallow it at the last moment. "Then I can't be calling him all the time."

"Hey, if you're this out of your mind now, by tonight you're going to be tearing your hair out and babe, it's only fun if he's pulling on it, if you know what I mean," Carolyn grinned. Edie knew her friend was trying her best to lighten up the situation, but she wasn't in the mood to be make light of how she was feeling.

"But that's just the point Cars," Edie complained, sitting up so that she could rub at the painful throbbing between her eyes. "If I'm this messed up over one missed phone call then maybe I'm not cut out to date…someone like…well, someone _important_." Carolyn pressed her lips together and gave Edie a sympathetic look. "And you know what the stupidest part is Cars? He probably isn't even thinking about me right now. He's probably doing interviews and hanging with the boys and he probably hasn't even thought twice about me today."

* * *

"Give it to me." Jon stood over Pat in the dressing room, getting angrier and angrier by the minute while Pat continued to act as thought he hadn't heard him. "_Now_ Kaner."

"_After_ the game," Pat replied without looking up from pulling on his socks.

"No, you'll fucking give it to me. I could have missed a call from my agent, my mom, anything," he snapped but all his severe tone earned him was a quick, unimpressed upwards glance.

"You haven't. I'd have told you if you had." That was it. Pat went back to taping his socks and back to ignoring Jon who was still standing over his smaller teammate, with hands clenched into fists, his mouth set in a very unhappy line. "She's just a chick man. Seriously dude, she can fucking wait. What happened to bros before hoes man?" Jon seriously thought about grabbing a hold of Pat's curls and dragging him to his feet by them and stuffing his fist into his mouth until he could grab a hold of his tonsils and pull them out. Fortunately for Pat, Skilles put his big mitts on Jon's shoulders, reminding him where he was.

"C'mon Kaner. Him being pissed isn't going to help him out there either." Kaner looked up at Skilles and then at Jon and shrugged.

"Fine, but I'm telling you, you let that chick distract you now man and the next thing you know, your balls are in a jar and she only lets you visit them on special occasions." Reaching into his bag, Pat retrieved Jon's phone and held it out for him, pulling it back the minute Jon reached for it. "Think about what I'm saying man. Chicks fuck with your head and your game man. You're not going to get to a Rocket Richard trophy through her pussy."

Snatching his phone, Jon immediately turned it on to find that Pat hadn't lied. He hadn't missed any calls.

Still, the first thing he wanted to do was call her but just as he was scrolling through his last placed calls for her number Coach Quenneville walked in the room.

"That important Toews?" Jon looked down at his phone, crestfallen, but shook his head. "Good, you're on my time now. Okay gentleman, here's the game plan…."


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

"What you need is to get out, fucking dance and get drunk off your ass," Carolyn stood over her friend, hands on hips, as Edie shook her head.

"I'll just have a night in, watch a movie or something," Edie replied, swirling the remnants of an ice tea in her glass. It wasn't what she wanted. She did want something stronger, like maybe a couple hundred shots of tequila, but she was telling herself that if she started she wouldn't be able to stop and that would be just end up being a pathetic spiral of self hatred that would probably result in waking up in the same clothes she was wearing now, probably in a puddle of her own puke.

"I can't let you do that," Carolyn reached forward and grabbed both of Edie's hands. "I'm your friend and I can't let you wallow in self pity. We are going out, pick up some fucking hot men and we're going to dance our asses off, get all faced and skip work tomorrow. Deal?" Edie stared up at Carolyn. It was a really bad idea but she knew she was going to give in. She could say no now, but Carolyn wasn't the type to give up and eventually she'd get worn down and they'd end up going anyway, only by that time she'd have been force fed half a bottle of vodka and when they'd got to the club she'd just end up doing something stupid like making out with some loser that wasn't nearly as cute as Jon and….

"Fuck! Sure…whatever. You're right. I am not going to sit around waiting for some guy to call me. What am I? I'll tell you, some kind of pathetic little princess, that's what," Edie grumbled, allowing Carolyn to pull her to her feet.

"That's it. That's my girl. Watch out Vancouver, Edie is on the prowl!"

* * *

"Still no answer." Jon growled and stared down at his phone.

"See?" Kaner laughed as he sat, unlacing his skates. "Bitch ain't worth freaking over. If she was waiting for you by the phone, like a good girlfriend should…."

"Like any woman worth having would sit by the phone and wait for you mop top," Turco gave the top of Pat's head a rub as he walked by. Jon was glad that someone else had said it. It saved him from having to. Jon tried her number again, but just like the other four times he'd tried since the end of the game, it went straight to voice mail.

"Fuck!" he hissed, slamming the phone down on the bench beside him. First they'd had their asses absolutely fucking handed to them by the bottom of the barrel licking Flames, and now this. It was almost too much to take.

"She's probably with some other guy right now," Pat grinned in that way that he always did when he knew what he was saying would probably end up getting him pummeled but he didn't care. "You know what they say, out of sight out of…."

Jon didn't let him finish his thought. He tackled his smaller teammate to the floor and landed at least one blow before he felt other hands on him, dragging him off of Kaner who was bleeding out of the corner of his mouth but still grinning.

"Don't you _dare_ say shit like that about her! You don't know her. You don't know anything about her," Jon hissed as he was dragged backwards. He actually felt better for having got a couple of punches off. At least it felt like he'd done something. He'd tried to do something about letting out his frustrations on the ice, but that wasn't when he was at his best. He played better when he was calm, when he was focused. Going out there and trying to hit guys because he was pissed, because he was worried, that wasn't his game.

"You two can't be fighting," Sharpie stood between them. Jon's hands were still curled into fists. But a critical glance from his teammate made him relax his hands. "I don't want to be getting up in the middle of the night to police sirens because you've asphyxiated this little dickhead with a pillow," Patrick added, turning to look at Kane. Jon looked at him too and felt just the slightest swell of satisfaction.

"Besides," Duncs added, laying a hand gently on Jon's shoulder, "I have dibs on that particular mode of punishment for the little shit and I'd hate to have to beat you to a messy pulp for infringing on that." That got everyone smiling, including Jon and Pat, albeit grudgingly.

"So fucking shake hands so I can sleep on the damn plane and not play referee," Rusty insists, standing between the two of the young players like a ref at a boxing match. Jon held his hand out and Pat gave him a grudging fist pump. "And you," the red headed defenseman added, giving the top of Kane's head a rub, "stop being such a fucking little shit. Jeez."

"Don't worry about Tayzer," Sharpie grinned, swinging his bag over his back. "She's probably just giving you a taste of your own medicine for not calling her, and as for Kaner, he's just jealous 'cuz no girl's ever stayed the whole night with him."

"Dude that's totally me kickin' them out. I need my sleep," Kane replied with a cocky grin.

"Yeah, beauty sleep," Jon smirked as he turned back to grab a towel from the shelf before he headed for the showers.

"I heard that," Pat yelled from behind him as Jon walked away.

"Good 'cuz I meant it you ugly motherfucker!" Jon yelled back over his shoulder, grinning as he disappeared around the corner and into the steam of the showers.

* * *

"Another!" Edie hollered down the bar, slamming the shot glass down. The bartender laughed and waved, motioning that he'd be down to their end of the bar in a minute. Edie licked the last drop of tequila off her bottom lip and reached for the salt shaker. "C'mon, who wants to be my lime?"

"Don't you think you've had enough?" The voice in her ear was low and the tone definitely held a note of amusement.

"Normally I'd agree with you," she nodded without turning to see who was whispering into her ear. "But tonight, I want to get shit faced," she continued, spinning the bar stool around and sending the tall, dark haired stranger with the electric blue eyes staggering back into the arms of his friends. "Oh…sorry," she giggled, reaching out to grab a hold of shirt and ending up with her fingers in the belt loops of his snug fitting jeans. "Or not," she grinned, tugging him closer. "Hey…you look…_familiar_," she added, peering at his face in the near darkness of the club. He had a nice smile, she decided, and really nice eyes but she wasn't a fan of beards.

"Do I?" he laughed. He hadn't tried to pry her fingers off his jeans but he was rolling up the sleeve of his dress shirt, revealing a thick, muscular forearm. Edie looked down at his hand, at the myriad of scars crisscrossing his knuckles and then she looked up at his face again. He wasn't exactly handsome, aside from his incredibly blue eyes, but he had a kind, sort of honest face. She nodded and smiled up at him and then reached for a slice of lime from the bowl in front of her.

"Some guys look different out of their helmets but not you," she told him, turning back around and ignoring the arm he held out towards her, opting instead to undo the first four or so buttons of his shirt. He didn't look shocked. He didn't struggle. He just smiled down at her. "Not tough guy Tanner," she whispered to him as she pulled him down to her level by his lapels.

"You've got me at a disadvantage," he laughed as she held him there with one hand while she reached back for the now refilled shot glass with her other hand.

"In more ways than one," she replied in a whisper as she raised the glass in salute to his friends who roared their approval. "Ready?" she asked, not waiting for his reply before she downed the shot and then slammed the lime wedge against his neck, dragging it down to his collarbone before shaking salt over the glistening trail of liquid. Then, with a playful grin, Edie pressed the flat of her tongue against the warm skin just below his collarbone and slowly, with her gaze locked to his, she licked her way up until she was sucking the last of the sour juice from the smooth skin just below his ear.

His friends were clapping and howling, as were a lot of the patrons near the bar. For his part, Edie felt his hands on her ass, lifting her off of the barstool and pulling her against his tall, solid body.

"Come dance," he whispered hoarsely in her ear. He didn't want to dance. His body told the truth he wasn't speaking out loud as he pressed the evidence of his desire against her thigh. 'Bad idea' Edie's conscience screamed in her ear, but she was three or four shooters removed from giving in to the angel on her shoulder. She was, however, not convinced that a solid, tall, hard body and piercing blue eyes could overcome the whole beard issue.

"Do me one favor," she giggled, sliding her arms around his waist and tucking herself into his body.

"What's that babe?" he grinned down at her.

"Kiss me." Edie looked up at him and smiled. This time he did look shocked, but only for a second before his eyebrows slid back into place and the skeptical expression he was wearing turned into a happy grin.

"Always ready to oblige a pretty lady," he told her, tipping her back into his arm until she felt her hair falling back and her breasts straining to pop out the top of her dress.

"Go Glass!" His friends cheered him on and Edie grinned up at him as she tried to dig her fingers into what felt like reinforced steel beams, not arms. His biceps bulged beneath her fingers and she suddenly felt a pang of loss, of regret and just as his mouth covered hers' in a hard, demanding kiss, gut wrenching guilt.

When his tongue demanded entry, Edie pushed back and turned her face away. He tasted like whiskey and worse than that, his beard irritated her skin. Much worse than that, however, was that she'd heard Carolyn hiss sharply behind her and she was sure she'd heard one of Tanner Glass's teammates say:

"What the fuck are they doing here?"

Edie turned her head towards Carolyn and found a pair of dark eyes staring down at her and a boyishly handsome face that made her heart skip a beat, turn into a mask of pure, unadulterated rage.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"You've just made a serious mistake."

Jon didn't know if he was saying it to Edie or the lumberjack kissing her, probably both, but he didn't stick around to continue the conversation. Here he'd been worried that she was sitting home, fuming over his not calling when really she was out gallivanting and kissing other guys.

He headed back the way they'd come in, pushing Kaner aside as both he and Duncs tried to stop him from leaving. He needed fresh air to clear his head and then he needed to get back to the hotel where he could feel humiliated without an audience.

His chest hurt. Jon pressed a fist against the middle of his chest and winced as he pushed his way out onto the street. He'd been looking forward to seeing her. While most of the rest of the team had caught an hour of shuteye on the plane, he'd practically been bouncing in his seat, vibrating with energy, his every thought focused on touching down and finally being with her again. He hadn't even wanted to come out. He'd wanted to phone her and have her meet the bus at the hotel. He'd thought of nothing but being in what she called her closet of an apartment, in her bed, making up for lost time.

It was only when she still didn't answer as the bus pulled up in front of the Sheraton that Jon had given in to Kaner and the rest of the guys who wanted to catch last call at the Roxy. He was miffed that she hadn't answered, but he'd never have gone sticking his tongue down some random's throat just to get even.

Jon turned to walk up Granville. He wasn't sure this was the right direction to get to the hotel, but he just wanted to walk. He didn't care that it was cold or that it was drizzling. Other than during the Olympics, Jon couldn't remember ever coming to this city when it wasn't at least spitting. He just put his head down and walked, his fists shoved into the pockets of his jacket, his teeth grinding as he strode silently through the late evening revelers like some kind of human storm cloud.

* * *

"Ah fuck! Put me down." Edie watched Jon turn on his heel and straight arm Patrick Kane out of his way. He was pissed. 'Well he has a right to be' Edie told herself as she Tanner Glass put her back on her feet. Carolyn was already holding out her purse and coat check ticket. Edie grabbed her purse and shook her head at the ticket. "Get it for me. I won't ever catch him if I wait to get my fucking jacket," she called over her shoulder as she turned to head out after him.

"Smooth move," Kane grinned at her. Edie made a face and then reached over to grab a half empty pitcher of beer off of the bar and promptly up ended it over the mop top's head. "I know, I know I'm going," she grumbled at the bartender who was shaking his head at her. She could hear Tanner and his teammates cheering behind her. Well, she was nothing if not a solid, loyal member of the Nuck Nation.

At least until she caught up with Jonathan.

As she hit the sidewalk, she caught site of his tall, broad shouldered form shoving his way through the crowd. His long legs had already carried him more than a block away. Hopping on one foot, Edie grabbed hold of the arm of one of the bouncers and then leaned down to unzip her boot. He looked down at her quizzically but didn't stop her. In fact he held the one boot while she did the same with the other and then handed them both to her as she waved a thank you and took off running in her bare feet.

"Jon!" she called but he didn't turn. "Don't be a jackass!" she snapped as she caught up to him, grabbing the back of his coat and using her momentum and his to send him crashing into the front window of Golden Age Collectibles.

"Me?" he gave a bitter sounding laugh as he looked down at her. "You're calling me a jackass after…that?" he pointed back down the street and made a face. He was thinking about her kissing someone else. He was jealous. It was kind of cute. If she didn't already feel guilty about it, she might have toyed with him, teased him about it. But the fact was, she _was_ in the wrong.

"Hey, I'm drunk," she told him honestly. "I mean, I'm in bare feet here. Bums piss on this street," she added looking down at the grungy sidewalk, dotted with dried up gum, pigeon shit and who knew what else. "What's your fucking excuse for not calling?"

"I've been calling all day. You haven't answered," he snarled back. Edie made a face and then reached into her bag. She pulled out her phone. It was off.

"Fucking Carolyn," she growled, turning it back on to find that she had three voice mails and ten missed calls. "Okay, but it was on until at least four thirty," she told him in her own defense. "And _you_ promised to call last night."

"Kaner stole my phone," he told her, his tone leveling out as she scrolled through his text messages. Each one was shorter and more to the point. The last one only read '_where r u_?'

"He stole your phone?" she looked up at him and raised her eyebrow. He rolled his dark eyes and nodded.

"He even hid it from me," he sighed, shrugging his massive shoulders. "They think…," he looked away up the street and sighed. "They think I'm spending too much time thinking about you." Edie grinned. She didn't really want to, after all, he was pissed at her and she was trying to be apologetic, but the thought of Captain Serious getting into trouble with his teammates for acting like a teenager with a serious crush….

"And have you?" she asked, sliding her arms through the holes created by his hands still being hidden deep in the pockets of his pea-coat. "Have you been thinking about me?" she purred as she pressed her body up close to his. She was starting to shiver but he was warm and though his coat was a little damp, the heat that she felt as she pressed her body against his more than made up for a little rain.

"You know I have," he grumbled, still staring off up the street. He was trying not to look at her, which meant he was trying to stay angry, trying not to give in to the way she was feeling, that just being with him again was making her feel.

"And just what have you been thinking?" she asked, pressing her lips lightly against the sharp line of his jaw. His mouth twitched and he blinked and then a rush of blood rose up from beneath the collar of his coat and flooded his face and then the next thing she knew, he'd somehow managed to lift her off of her feet and switch places with her so that hers' was the back pressed to the window of the comic book and sport memorabilia store.

"I want to be with you…inside of you…right _now_," he hissed, his dark eyes searching her face. He still looked angry, but he also looked like he was teetering on the edge of losing his shit. Visions of the hot, angry sex they'd had in that dark alley in Chicago flashed through Edie's brain and she whimpered.

'_Oh fuck, panty soup'_ she thought to herself as she wrapped her legs around his waist, urging him closer. He was staring at her mouth like he wanted desperately to kiss her, or maybe bite her and she couldn't really decide if she cared which he decided to do.

"I didn't just come here for sex Edie," he growled, his mouth almost touching hers'. Edie nodded, silently. "I want to take you to Vegas and then I want to take you home but…," he clenched his teeth and gave her a small but firm shake. "Damn it, I have to trust you and I have to know…I need to know if you…?"

"I do," she told him, nodding earnestly as she said it. "I love you."

* * *

He closed his eyes and let out a breath he hadn't realized that he'd been holding. '_She loves me'_ he told himself, feeling a weight lift off his chest. The vice his heart had been in for the last two days loosened and it felt like he could truly breathe for the first time in three weeks.

"Don't _ever_ do that again," he sighed, pressing his forehead to hers'. "Jeezus. I thought losing to Calgary sucked. Watching you kiss that guy…," his voice trailed off as he opened his eyes to gaze into hers'.

"Yeah…sorry about that. Tequila is _very_ bad for me," she grinned. "You're gonna have Bickell hurt him aren't you?"

Jon thought about it for a moment. He hadn't realized it at the time, his total attention had been on Edie, but the more he thought about it…

"That guy was a Canuck?" he asked and she nodded. Jon shut his eyes and sighed. "Yeah…I'm gonna have to fight him or something," he told her seriously and then smiled, "and we're definitely going to have to give them a spanking and it _will_ be _all_ your fault."

"A spanking eh?" she grinned at him and he laughed and shook his head.

"Well I guess you do deserve one," he chuckled as he slid his hand down her back to cup her ass and gave it a firm squeeze.

"Please sir, may I have some…more?" she asked in horrible fake British accent. Jon heard himself growl as he pressed her against the pane of glass at the front of the store. He wanted her now, here, in front of all of the people he could hear walking behind him. He couldn't believe no one had stopped them and he wondered, for just a moment, if he could get away with it. Coming back to his senses, he readjusted his grip, and turned around.

"Hail a taxi," he told her as he walked out to the edge of the street, "and please tell me that your place isn't far."

* * *

"I can't believe you gave the cabbie a hundred," she giggled as she ran ahead of him up the stairs to her apartment.

"I can't believe you went down on me in the back of the cab," he growled, catching her around the waist and carrying her under his arm the last few stairs.

"You said you couldn't wait," she mewed as he set her down in front of the door at the top of the steps, but he still grabbed her keys out of her hand and impatiently shoved them in the lock. "If you break the key off we'll never get inside," she pointed out while he twisted the dead bolt hard enough that she thought it might break off in his hand. Fortunately though the door resisted, it opened and Edie found herself dragged inside while he kicked the door closed behind them and threw the locks and then tossed his jacket and his tie on the floor before kicking off his shoes.

She shrieked when he picked her up again, this time tossing her over his shoulder while he took the three or four strides it took to get to the French doors that were fortunately ajar so that just the end of her bed was visible and he didn't have to kick down all of the doors to find it. She gave a yelp when he tossed her down into the middle of the bed, but lay there grinning while she watched him furiously work at the buttons on his baby blue dress shirt.

She licked her lips when he finally pulled the shirt off and tossed it aside. She'd been dreaming about this moment and it didn't matter that he hadn't given her the time to light all of the candles she'd set up around the room or put on a little Bublé to set the mood. Just seeing his wide shoulders, his ridiculous six-pack and the ferocious and determined look on his face was mood making enough. And if that hadn't been enough, when he shoved his dove grey suit pants down over his hips, taking his boxer briefs with them certainly was.

"Oh yeah baby, come to mama," she giggled, biting down on her bottom lip as he crawled onto the bed on his knees.

"Oh yeah?" he raised a single eyebrow as he grinned down at her and then grabbed a hold of legs just above her knees and pulled. Edie skidded across the quilt and found herself beneath him, her dress having rolled up over her hips, which seemed to be his plan. He hooked his fingers in her panties and pulled, yanking them off in one fluid motion. With a playful grin, he twirled the black lace around his index finger. "Who's your daddy?"

"Well his name's Michael and he's an accountant and I don't think he'd approve of his little girl going down on…yeeeeeeek!" Jon slid off the end of the bed and dove in between her thighs, his tongue wiggling into her entrance, making her squeal. "Oh yeah…you're my daddy," she sighed, leaning her head back and squeezing her eyes shut while she dug her fingers into her quilt and got her ready for the ride.

* * *

He'd missed the smell of her skin, and her hair but mostly it was this he'd missed, Jon thought as he slid the flat of his tongue up towards that little bud of oh so sensitive tissue. As he pressed his tongue against her clit and felt a shudder run through her thighs, as he heard her moan, it felt like he'd come home.

Jon sucked and nibbled on her clit, making her whimper and cry out in turns and he forgot that he'd been angry and dismissed what he'd seen at the bar. That guy might have kissed her but he was the one making her say his name in that sultry tone that said she wanted more, that she wanted him. He swore to himself, as he sucked on that little pearl and listened to her cry out his name that he would never, ever listen to another fucking thing that Kaner had to say.

Sliding two fingers inside, he sought that spot that would make her scream, that would bring her to the edge. He wanted her to cum before he slid his dick into her. Just like in the taxi, he was pretty sure he wasn't going to last long once he got into her. Not the first time. So he wanted her to be there already so he could join her.

"Oh…oh fuck yeah!" Her hips suddenly rose completely off of the bed and he felt all of her muscles clamping down on his fingers as he pressed up on that spongy spot and hummed against her clit at the same time. This is what guys like Kaner were missing when they screwed their little puck fucks, only worrying about getting off themselves. Jon loved to listen to her make all of the happy noises that meant he was doing the right things, that he was pleasing her. He loved to know that he could. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!" She cried out and her body bucked and her heels drummed against his back and her juices flowed over his fingers.

He licked them clean and then slid his tongue into her entrance to taste more. It was sweet and salty all at the same time. It was like sucking raw honey from the comb. Spreading her pink lips, he kissed his way back up to her clit and gave it one more swipe of his tongue for good measure, making her squeak, and then he got up and crawled onto the bed with her, beside her, leaning on his hand and looking down into her beautiful face. She was flushed and a fine sheen of sweat made her face glow but most importantly, she was grinning at him.

"Ummm welcome to Vancouver?" she sighed, reaching up to bring his lips down to hers'. He resisted, at first, sure she wouldn't want to taste herself on his lips, but she insisted and it only took a second or two to realize she not only didn't care but that he couldn't be bothered to worry about that anymore. How could he have forgotten how good it was to kiss her?

"I'm sorry," she whispered against his mouth. He shook his head but when she wouldn't keep kissing him, he opened his eyes and looked down.

"I've forgotten it…at least until I run into the douchebag on the ice," he told her, kissing the tip of her nose, her eyelids.

"Yeah well…you're sorry too right? I mean I don't go out and get a Brazilian for just anybody you know," she grinned.

"I've already shown my appreciation for that," he grinned back, sliding his hand down over her stomach, running the palm of his hand over the baby smooth skin and sliding his fingers down into her warm, wet centre. She hummed and smiled and scooted closer to him.

"You still haven't said you're sorry," she whispered, running her hand along his ribs and down, around his hip. She gave his ass a hard slap. He winced.

"I'll make sure to tell Kaner what I almost missed out on," he promised, sliding his fingers up inside of her as he pressed his lips to her shoulder, her collarbone, the slope of her breast. She must have slipped the rest of her dress off while he'd been hard at work. There was nothing between them now.

"Nnno," she muttered, a gasp escaping her lips as her hand slid back between them until she was gently cupping his sac. "Don't tell that little fuck anything," she insisted. Jon looked up at her from where he was currently tracing the outline of her areola with his tongue. "I…might have…accidentally on purpose…poured a pitcher of beer over his head." Jon pressed his forehead against her shoulder and snorted. That would definitely have put a dampener on Kaner's chances of putting some smooth moves on the ladies. "I don't like the way he looks at me," Edie explained, "don't be mad, okay?" Jon lifted his head and smiled.

"I'll definitely have to guard my phone after this and I'll probably have something nasty in my cup tomorrow morning but believe me, he needs taking down a peg or two once in a while." He could imagine how pissed his roommate would be and could picture what was waiting for him back at the hotel. "Do you think I could stay here tonight?" he asked. Edie frowned.

"I thought you would, I mean, that was the plan wasn't it?" Jon pressed his lips to hers' and then jumped off the bed and went looking for his jacket.

"I'll just text Coach, tell him I found you. He'd said it was okay but I have to let him know," he explained as he pulled his iPhone out of his jacket pocket.

* * *

Jon let out another snort and then turned the screen towards her. Edie crawled to the edge of the bed and narrowed her eyes. The photo was dark but she could just make out Patrick Kane's drenched curls and a formidable frown on his face. She bit her bottom lip and shook her head. Jon would definitely be safer here.

As she watched him send a couple of quick texts as she crawled under the covers and waited for him to come back to bed she let her gaze travel up his long, muscular legs. She paused and let herself have a good long look at the curve of his amazing badonkadonk before she continued her personal porn moment and used ever indentation in his abs as a roadmap.

When he finished texting, he bent to put his phone on the bedside table and caught her staring at him, well, at his chest and as she watched, he started to turn red. It was crazy that he still got self conscious. After all, they'd spent the better part of their relationship naked.

Edie flipped the covers down and patted the spot beside her on the bed. He crawled quickly under the covers and promptly pinned her to the bed. She smiled up at him and reached up to brush her fingertips over the birthmark just below his mouth.

"I can't believe I'm in love with a Hawk," she told him quietly, meaning every word.

"If it helps," he whispered, doing a sort of push up as he positioned himself carefully between her thighs, "I can't believe it either." Edie made a sort of unintelligible noise and dug her fingernails into his ribs. She felt more than heard his laughter, his sides vibrating beneath her hands as she held on. She hadn't forgotten what it was like to be stretched, to feel him feeling her, but it still took her breath away. She slid her arms up and around him, digging her fingers into his shoulders as he plumbed her depths, reaching that spot that meant he could go no further. Their hips met and parted and she gasped, arching her neck as he kissed his way down it, slowly, gently, until his teeth found her shoulder and then she gasped again. "I missed you," he told her as he held himself just at her entrance, his dark eyes looking down into hers'.

"I missed you more," she promised and he shook his head and then drove himself deeply into her, making her gasp out loud, throw her head back and call out his name.


	18. Chapter 18

_so sorry about how long it took me to bang this out...crap going on at work makes it hard for me to get into a good head space, so with my apologies, here is another JT installment_

Edie lifted her face into the spray and momentarily wished that the water was hot, black coffee to help her wake up. Not that she wanted to. What she wanted was to be back in that bed, snuggled into Jon's big, warm body. Not for sex. She wasn't sure she could, even if she wanted to. Her body felt like she'd been doing sessions of Wipeout over and over again. No, what she wanted was sleep.

Edie pressed her hands against the tiles and let the hot water pummel her back. She wished she could sleep in, just for an hour. Jon didn't have to be at the rink until ten. Edie was fairly sure she'd be on her third, maybe fourth espresso by then, if she wasn't asleep, face first on the blotter on her desk.

"I thought you were gone." A smile crept across her face as she felt his hands slide around her waist, the width of his chest press against her back and his lips brush gently against her shoulder. Without saying a word, Edie leaned back and let him hold her. She slid her hands along his forearms until their fingers were laced and then she turned, craning her neck to look up at him. "So do you really have to beat up on my Nucks to take me to Vegas?"

"That's the idea," he told her, kissing her cheek. "Why? You gonna be mad at me if we do?"

"I'm not sure how I'll feel about it," Edie replied honestly, leaning her head back against his chest and closing her eyes.

"You do still want to go to Vegas, right?" he asked quietly. She nodded. "And are you…you're gonna give your notice today, right?"

"Oh, yeah, about that…I don't know," Edie began, and felt him go suddenly still. "It's just…I mean…I know I said I'd think about it and I have but…it's a big step." He said nothing, but she felt his hands tighten around hers'. "You could have changed your mind. I mean, after last night," she continued, still waiting for him to interject; to say something, anything, but he didn't. Not for a long time. Not for long enough that the water started to get cold

"I haven't…I won't," he answered somberly, letting go of one of her hands to reach forward and shut off the water, and then he turned her to face him and cupped her cheek in his hand. "I won't," he repeated, his gaze earnest, determined. "I'm in love with you Eden. I was yesterday, I am today and I will be tomorrow and every day after that."

It was as if the air got thick, or had disappeared altogether. Edie's felt her chest tighten and it felt like she had to work to breathe. He was waiting for an answer to the question he'd left unspoken, but she'd heard it all the same. Part of her brain was telling her to stay the course, to do what was logical, to tell him she needed time but the expression in his eyes told her that wasn't the answer that he was waiting for and it wasn't the answer that sprang to her lips.

"I guess I'm giving my notice," she told him, leaning into his hand and smiling up at him, watching that boyish grin that she loved altering his features, taking years off of his face.

"That's my girl," he whispered against her mouth before he pressed his lips over hers and wrapped her up in his arms.

* * *

"There he is, the pussy whipped wonder boy," Predictably Kaner was the first one to greet Jon as he dragged his butt into the rink. "You gave in to her kinda quick didn't you?"

"I got a blowjob in a taxi and then had sex like six times. What did _you_ do last night?" Jon sneered at his curly mopped teammate and continued walking past. He ached. Ever single muscle and bone in his body ached but he couldn't stop grinning.

"Damn man, you didn't get a wink of sleep did you?" Sharpie laughed, patting Jon on the back. I hope you're planning on getting in some zees this afternoon."

"Maybe," Jon shrugged, dropping down onto the bench in the visitor's dressing room at Roger's Arena. "Then again, maybe not," he added with a private smile. Edie had dragged him back to bed and he'd had to remind himself that he was a professional and that he had to come to work today. All he'd wanted was to stay in bed all day, curled around her, running his hands over her soft smooth skin.

"Right on. High five!" Brooksy held his hand up. Jon considered hitting it and then shook his head.

"It's not like I just hit some random chick. I know you guys are just gonna laugh but…I love her. I even think I'm gonna ask her to marry me." The entire room fell silent, like a tomb. Jon looked around. He wasn't surprised by the reaction. In fact it was exactly the reaction that he expected. He was just waiting for the recriminations. No one was looking at him. No one, that is, except Kane. "Go on. Tell me I'm insane and that I'm stupid and that she's not worth it. Go on. At least do it to my face, not behind my back."

"No one's gonna say anything like that. Right boys?" Soups looked around the room and everyone, save Kane, nodded.

"Ah c'mon. It's not just me that thinks it's crazy right? C'mon…." Kaner looked around the room, waiting for back up that didn't come. "Shoot…whatever man. I'm hittin' the ice." Jon watched Pat grab his stick and stomp out of the room.

"He's just pissed about losing his wing man," Pisey gave Jon's shoulder a squeeze and grinned. "You know he can't get chicks on his own. Too short." Jon nodded and smiled. He didn't want Pat to be mad but he wasn't going to run after him and beg him to understand either. He knew what he was feeling wasn't the result of any kind of mental illness, unless love was the result of some kind of chemical imbalance and if it was, he was okay with it.

"I guess I don't care if you guys all think I'm nuts. I'm still gonna do it," he told the rest of the guys in the room. Most of them nodded, some of them shrugged.

"You sure you're not gonna scare her away? I mean, you hardly know her," Sharpie pointed out, but in a tone that said he was actually concerned for Jon and not that he disapproved.

"Yeah, I've thought of that," Jon replied calmly. He'd thought of little else since they'd parted at O'Hare. "And if I do, I'll just chase after her until she gives in."

"Stalk the girl…hot," Pisey laughed and that made Jon smile.

"So…have you got the ring and everything?" Sharpie asked. Jon shook his head. "So it's some kind of heirloom? Your grandmother's or something?" Again, Jon shook his head.

"No, we were way too poor for any of that kind of stuff back in Winnipeg," he told them with a grin, "so I thought I'd get something in Vegas."

"Classy," Turco smirked but Jon just shrugged it off. They'd have rocks the size of his heart there, he was pretty sure of that and nothing else was good enough to let Edie know how much he cared.

* * *

"You're _not _wearing _that_," Carolyn didn't even look up from painting her nails. It's like she knew Edie's closet by sound.

"This is what I always wear to games. It's cold at the rink Cars. I'm not wearing a tube top and hot shorts," Edie snapped back, slipping her Bieksa jersey off of the hanger. Carolyn smirked, obviously getting a giggle out of the image that created in her head, but shook her golden curls.

"Nah, I was more thinking something classy, something ." Edie put the skinny jeans back on the shelf and turned to face her friend, hands on hips.

"I don't wear fur," she pointed out.

"I just mean something more covered up, something that will leave a little more to the imagination. You were just saying how you've basically spent the whole time you've known him naked or close to it. So…get Victorian on his ass and wear that Russian military style coat over ummm…." Carolyn closed her eyes and Edie was sure that her friend was mentally going through her closet. She even moved her hands like she was pushing hangers along. "Wear your black and suit pants, you know the ones with the purple pin stripe and…maybe that purple flashy top with the…," Carolyn's hands went to her throat as if she was feeling the metal clasp the halter top had at the opening of the throat, "you know, the one with no back on it. That way, you'll be warm at the game and then later, when he gets the coat off…ta-dah!" Carolyn's eyes opened and she grinned.

"You should have been a fashion designer," Edie sighed, turning back to her closet in search of the suggested pieces.

"Too much work. I just want someone to be my sugar daddy so I can buy nothing but Prada and Chanel and buy me a walk in closet for a wedding present." Edie shook her head. Someone watched Sex and the City waaayy too much.

"So are you gonna come with and see about Kaner filling that role?" Edie asked, taking the pants out and laying them on the end of her bed. Carolyn smiled but didn't answer.

* * *

He looked up into the stands as he walked around the bench and onto the ice. There was a smattering of Hawks jerseys in the stands, less than last year. A lot of the local boys had ended up on other teams after they'd brought the come home. Jon assumed Ladd's folks wouldn't be here en force as they had been, but Brookie's folks were. He nodded to them, but went back to scanning the crowd.

She had to be here.

He wondered if she'd wear his jersey, or a Canuck's jersey. He hoped it would be his even while he sort of thought that it wouldn't.

He took a lap of the ice, feeling that sort of ache in his thighs that he always got when he hadn't had enough sleep. He'd desperately wanted to go back to her place for his afternoon nap but Coach had taken one look at the circles under his eyes and had forbidden it. He wanted her, but he also wanted to play and he didn't want to let the rest of the guys down.

He dug the blades of his skates into the ice and listened to the familiar sounds of the other guys around him doing the same thing, getting a feel for the ice. The cool air woke him up faster than anything else. That and the adrenalin of seeing the Canucks players hit the ice and hearing the fans applauding and yelling for their team.

Vancouver hates the Hawks. Some of these people, he thought to himself, screamed for him and the rest of the guys not that long ago when he'd won a gold medal out on this same ice. Winning the Cup had been amazing and he would never forget it, but there had been a special pride, a distinct feeling of awe when the crowd in this building had roared as one when Crosby had put the biscuit in the basket that day. The entire nation had roared in their ears.

Now his blood roared in his ears as he looked up and saw her standing behind the glass right next to the bench. There was a sea of people over near the Canucks bench. There was only a few bodies near the Hawks bench and somehow she'd made it there, was standing there behind the glass, smiling at him. His heart missed a beat and he stood there, centre ice, staring at her, wearing a big stupid grin on his face.

She lifted her hand and bent her fingers in a minute gesture of greeting. Jon waved back, like a little kid would, seeing his parents after a two weeks at camp. He wanted to run toward her in the same happy, uninhibited sort of way. Shit, it had only been a few hours and he could hardly wait to have her in his arms again.

* * *

There it was again, she thought as she stood there behind the plexi-glass, watching him skate towards her. There was that big, boyish, lop sided grin of his. She put her hand against the glass as he skidded to a stop and pressed his hand over hers'.

"You look great," he shouted, putting his glove hand against the glass where hers' was. "Except for the scarf," he added. Edie grinned and tossed the end of her blue Canucks scarf over her shoulder. "You _really_ gonna cheer against me?"

"Well…there is this." She unbuttoned the top two buttons of her coat and pulled her lapels wide enough for him to see the crimson jersey beneath. She looked back up to find him grinning down at her. Shaking her head and laughing, she buttoned up her coat. "I don't want to get beat up," she explained.

"If I put one in will you cheer for me?" he asked and she shrugged and batted her eyelashes. She wasn't sure how she'd feel about it. Probably much like she had when the Pens had been in town the year before. She'd ended up cheering for both teams, much to the annoyance of most of the other spectators around her. "You packed right?" he asked and she nodded again. This sucked, being on the opposite sides of the glass. He looked damn handsome in his uniform and tall…very tall.

She considered scaling the glass but one of the yellow clad security guards was already giving her the sink eye. However, she had spied a means of getting at least some minor action. Beckoning him to follow, she slid over to one of the holes in the glass meant for professional photographers to use, and stuck her hand through.

Jon's expression softened and he glided over, sticking his glove under his other arm so he could cover her hand with his. They stood there, grinning at one another until Carolyn started making retching noises and even then, Jon didn't let go of her hand until Kane rang a puck off the glass that made Jon jump and Edie scream.

"I guess I better go," he laughed. "Where are you sitting?"

"Just back there," she turned to point to a pair of seats on the aisle a few rows behind the net.

"I'll look for you when I score," he promised. "I'll see you right after the game. You have your credentials right?" Edie held them up for him to see and he nodded.

"Good luck, I guess," she smirked and he shook his head and laughed before giving her hand a squeeze and letting it go. Edie watched him skate away and felt her heart straining to follow him.

"Oh lord, look at you," Carolyn, who was leaning against the glass, with her back to the action and her arms crossed looking fed up rolled her eyes. "You're so in love it's gross. Now can we go get a hot dog? I'm fucking starving."

With a last longing glance towards where Jon was no standing at the top of the face-off circle, Edie gave him a half wave and then turned to follow Carolyn up the steps.

* * *

Jon faced Malhotra across the dot just to the left of Crawford's net. Green, to his left, grinned like the cat that got the canary. Jon wondered if he was really going to have to drop the gloves with the Canucks tough guy. He really didn't want to go to Vegas with a shiner, _although_, he thought with a smirk, _it would be something for the grandkids to talk about when they looked at the wedding photos_.

"So that was _your_ girlfriend I was sucking face with at the club?" Green asked as he settled his stick across his knees. Jon shrugged. He didn't really want to talk to the guy. He just wanted to get the face off done. The first period had been a struggle and not just for him. All the guys had seemed sluggish. Coach had given them a pep talk, reminding them what was at stake and the guys had promised each other that they'd try harder.

He really, _really_ wanted to get on that plane to Vegas.

He also really wanted to score. Not just to get the first one on the board and break the ice, but so that he could raise his arms and point up at her in front of the partisan crowd.

"She's pretty hot," Bieksa, the Canucks surly defenseman chimed in just as the puck was about to drop. "I think I've seen her around before. I'll be sure to say hi next time I see her." Jon growled as the puck dropped. He muscled the puck through his legs and back to Kaner who took off with it. Jon put his shoulder into Green's chest and shoved his way by. Now he wanted to score just to wipe the smug grins off their faces.

He fought to get free as Kane sped towards Vancouver's end. Jon tapped the ass, asking for the puck. He wanted this.

He heard Hoss coming hard on his heels and slid the puck over to his wing man and dodged a check and then called for the puck again as he crashed the net. He felt the puck hit the blade of his stick and then heard Kaner yelling behind him. He looked in the net. Luongo was staring at the same thing he was. The biscuit was definitely in the basket.

Throwing up his arms Jon turned to look for her. She was standing up, clapping and smiling and best of all, she was wearing his jersey.


	19. Chapter 19

_this is kind of a shorty but considering what was on all weekend? Can you blame me if I couldn't tear myself away from all the hockey hotties? C'mon. Besides the next chapter's probably going to be crazy long _

**Chapter 19**

"How can we even…there's no room."

Carolyn had been right. The purple slinky halter top had worked exactly as she had promised that it would. The minute they'd got on the plane and Edie had taken off her jacket, Jon hadn't been able to keep his eyes, or hands, off of her. Now they were in the cramped bathroom of the private jet and Jon was doing his best to get her out of her pants and up onto the sink. She couldn't help but think how cute he was when he got frustrated.

"Slow down Tiger," she whispered into his ear as he looked for some place to put her pants now that he had them off. "We've got lots of time. Unless of course someone else needs to go to the bathroom," she added, just to make him even more flustered. "Now put those on the towel bar," she told him and then, curling her fingers around his tie, pulled him to her, "and come here." The insecurity and uncertainty leaked out of his eyes as she brought her mouth against his. Now he was more like the player she'd seen out on the ice tonight, focused and determined which was becoming a heady combination to her.

She moaned into his mouth as he led her hand down to his pants, pressing her hand over the erection that was straining against his suit pants. She lowered his zipper and slid her hand inside and he groaned for her, his body swaying forward as she slid her hand down to cup his balls.

She'd made sure, as she had taken off her coat, that he had got an eyeful of skin, that he couldn't miss the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra. He'd been shifting uncomfortably in his seat ever since and now, as she ran her fingers up the solid lengths of him where it pressed against his pelvic bone, he actually whimpered.

"I have to be inside of you, now" he moaned, pressing his forehead to hers', his fingers digging into the flesh of her thighs. Luckily, having watched him play and having teased him while the entire team waited for wheels up was foreplay enough and Edie eased him free of his boxer briefs and aimed the head of his cock at her entrance. With a grunt and swivel of his hips, he slid easily inside and Edie gasped.

"Oh shit," she grasped the edge of the sink and then locked her ankles behind his back. "I keep thinking that I'll get used to this…you're so big," she whispered to him.

"I want you so much Edie," he told her, his lips brushing her cheek, the corner of her jaw, her temple. "I've been thinking of you all afternoon. Of being with you," he added, moving his mouth towards hers until their tongues touched before his lips crashed onto hers' like it was necessary, like if he didn't he'd die.

He was slamming into her, short, hard thrusts, their bodies hardly separating at all, like he was racing to the end. There would be time for long, drawn out, romantic joining later. This was good, Edie thought, apt. She'd been licking her lips at the thought of him out of his hockey gear, and he'd obviously been anticipating being with her again and so now they made love like they'd been starving and had suddenly been tossed a loaf of bread, eager, ravenous and insatiable.

"Harder, please baby," she gasped, tightening her thighs around him. Jon responded by grabbing the edge of the sink and using it to pull himself into her and redoubled his efforts, his body working like a perfect machine, like a jack hammer, pounding against her and into her so that all Edie could do was hold on for dear life and enjoy the ride.

"Cum for me Edie," Jon hissed into her ear, and then kissed his way down to her neck where he dug his teeth in. He must have been able to feel how close she was. "I can't hold on too long baby, cum for me," he growled against her neck. Peeling his fingers away from the edge of the sink, Edie guided his fingers between her thighs and he did the rest. She gasped and her entire body went rigid as he rubbed his fingers against her clit.

"Yes, yes!" she cried out. Jon's other hand was suddenly across her mouth, muffling her voice as his dark eyes shone a warning. Edie grinned behind his hand. As if every single member of the team didn't already know exactly what they were doing. She pressed her lips to the palm of his hand but he didn't remove it. Instead, he slid his other hand up her back and into the side of her halter top to twist and pinch her nipple, making her head fall back and a high pitched cry escaped her lips. He slammed into her, once, twice and then one last time before she felt his body suddenly stiffen and then his balls began to empty themselves into her, his cock pulsating inside of her. She was not far behind him, with Jon's fingers still rubbing fervently against her clit, Edie found herself falling against his chest, uttering a loud, high pitched cry as the orgasm hit her like a ton of bricks.

"Jesus, they're all going to hear you," Jon mumbled, his strong arms going around her, holding her to him as they both fought to catch their breath.

"I sort of think they'll have already had a pretty good idea what we came in here for," she grinned, detaching herself just enough to look into his boyishly handsome face. "Do you care?" Jon shrugged and showed her that crooked smile of his but the colour in his face wasn't just from exertion.

"They probably won't let me hear the end of it," he admitted, reaching up cup her cheek with his hand and guide her lips to his. "You know, the whole Captain Seriously no fun thing," he added with a shrug of one shoulder to match his crooked grin.

"They're just jealous," she promised him, kissing him softly, once, twice, before he helped her down off of the sink and then he reached back for her pants, which he handed to her and did his best to give her enough space to put them on.

"They'll still give me a hard time," he warned her.

"Do you really care?" she asked, doing up her zipper as she looked up at him. He shrugged again and then reached for her, drawing her into his arms and against his chest.

"Not while you're around, no."

* * *

He tried not to let the wolf whistles and cat calls that made them when the door to the bathroom opened, but Jon couldn't remember the last time he'd blushed this hard. It seemed like everyone was watching him follow her down the aisle of the plane, including Coach Quenneville, who, in a rare display of levity was giving them a golf clap. Jon desperately wanted to just get to their seats and maybe hide under his jacket until they touched down in Vegas. Edie, on the other hand, was blowing kisses, bowing and curtseying as she walked in front of him, like it didn't bother her one bit.

As soon as he could, Jon practically dove into his seat and slid down until his knees practically were touching his chin. Edie stood in the aisle and just shook her head.

"They're just teasing you," she chided him as she slid into the seat beside him and reached over to poke him in the ribs. Jon stared at the back of seat in front of him.

"I suppose you've done that before," he mumbled, hating that she seemed so god damn secure with herself right in this moment. He knew he was being unfair, blaming her for the way he felt but he couldn't help himself.

"I don't recall ever saying as I was a virgin," Edie snapped back, immediately crossing her arms across her chest and sat back heavily in the seat. They sat in charged silence for a while and then she sighed and reached over and slid her hand over top of his. He spread his fingers, inviting her to lace her fingers in his and then he sat, staring at the way their hands looked together. "No, I am not currently a member of the mile high club," she whispered, "but you shouldn't hold it against me if I was."

"I wouldn't…I don't," he sighed and brought her hand up to his mouth, pressing his lips firmly against her knuckles. "I'm sorry…I just…it's the whole Captain Serious thing. Sometimes…sometimes I just hate that if I do something Kaner would do and no one would make a big deal of it if he did it but do if I do it then it becomes this big deal and everyone makes it into this enormous thing…," he looked over at her and she was listening, watching him with a faint smile on her face. "I know…you don't get it…I mean, why should you," he sighed and turned to look out the window into the darkness but when he tried to drop her hand, she wouldn't let go.

"So let them," she said in a whisper as she leaned in, folding up the arm rest and pressing her body nearer to his. "They'll only keep doing it as long as you rise to it."

"Now you sound like my mom," he grumbled, sinking further into his seat.

"Yeah well, sometimes moms have good advice," she replied, digging her finger into his side until he returned his attention to her. "You know all the girls in school were always shitty to me because of my boobs," she whispered to him. Jon glanced down at where the slippery fabric brushed over her breasts. They _were_ more than a handful, he knew. He knew them by Braille, he could close his eyes and trace every centimeter of the pale, round flesh in his mind. They were perfect.

"They were just jealous," he replied, immediately feeling both protective and defensive of her. Edie smiled and raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, okay, I get it," he sighed, knowing he'd been caught. "It is a little different with guys," he pointed out to which she only shrugged.

"Yeah, guys are even _less_ mature," she pointed out, sliding her hand in between the buttons of his light blue dress shirt, "and Patrick will probably be chasing dancers around Vegas while you and I," she looked up at him with a playful smile, "will be sitting by the Pool of the Gods sipping Mai Tai's and getting a tan."

"About that," Jon removed her hand from his stomach, which was giving him ideas about going back into that cramped airplane bathroom. "I was thinking about some rides I'd like to go on. You know, like the roller coaster at New York New York and the Big Shot on the Stratosphere." He watched as Edie went a little green at the thought.

"I'm really not that good with heights," she moaned. Her friend Carolyn had already warned him about that, which was fine because a moment of weakness was something he was planning on using to his advantage, but she didn't need to know that.

"I promise to hold your hand," he told her and she sighed but nodded. Jon smiled to himself and then sat back and closed his eyes, still holding her hand. Now all he needed was to get the ring, and have her say yes.


	20. Chapter 20

His eyes were huge as he peered out the windows of the limo at the brightly lit strip with all its weird, wonderful and wacky sights. He looked half his age and that didn't bother her one bit. What did bother her was standing on the seat between them with his head and shoulders out the sunroof calling out to the girls walking down the sidewalk.

"Why didn't he get his own car?" she asked for the second time, wondering how hard it would be to either pull Patrick in or push him out altogether and if she could do it on her own.

"It's supposed to take like five minutes to get to our hotel, you can handle it that long," Jon answered without taking his eyes or attention off of the passing scenery.

"You've been here before, for the awards and stuff…right?" she asked, giving his ankle a kick. It's not that she was particularly perturbed about his enthusiasm for Sin City, it was that he'd been acting particularly odd since they had debarked the plane.

"Yeah but it's different every time," he enthused. Edie raised an eyebrow but didn't argue the point because she couldn't. It was true. She'd only been a couple of times herself and there always seemed to be a new hotel, a new shopping destination, a new pool. "So where are we staying?" she asked him but it wasn't Jon who answered.

"D'uh, the Palms," Kane replied, popping his head down to aim a look of disgusted disbelief at her. "What other hotel has stripper poles in the room and Ditch Friday?" Edie coughed and shook her head. Of course that would be his reasoning.

"Is everyone staying at the Palms?" she asked, hoping for a different answer from Jon.

"Don't get jealous but I totally booked the G-Suite," Kaner called down and Edie stared up at him as if he was speaking in tongues. "Tayzer probably booked the Barbie suite," Kane added with an evil laugh.

"The…Barbie suite?" she asked, blinking like a marsupial and hoping like hell Jon's mullet wearing teammate was kidding.

"I just got a sky villa," Jon replied, finally tearing his eyes off of the passing strip and sliding back towards Edie, reaching for her hand.

"Not even the Playboy one?" Kaner asked, looking down at them both like he was actually disappointed in Jon's choice.

"No, not even…I feel kinda funny booking the one I got but I thought it was kind of nice…for our first time here together," Jon added in a quiet tone as he turned his full attention, finally, to Edie. She smiled and offered her lips, which he took gently.

"God, wait for the room please I'm begging you," Kane grumbled and then the annoyance left his tone entirely as he slammed his hands down on the roof of the limo. "Hellloooo ladies!" he called and Jon shook his head as Edie rolled her eyes at him.

"We don't have to spend any time with him, I swear. Except maybe just tomorrow morning," Jon promised her and she just about missed the second part of his statement, but not quite.

"Why? What's tomorrow morning? Some kind of team breakfast?" she asked and he smiled and pressed his lips to the tip of her nose.

"Yeah, something like that," he told her and then put his arm around her and pulled her close.

* * *

"This is like…it's like the Hangover but better." Jon watched Edie walk around the luxurious suite and smiled to himself. It might not have been _the_ Bridal Suite but then he couldn't see either of them in the round red leather bed in the Erotic Suite. It was a bit too Pamela Anderson for his tastes and he'd felt confident she would feel the same. This suite also had a round bed next to a gas fireplace but it's understated gold and brown tones suited both of them more he thought. "This must have cost…shit, I'm not sure I want to guess how much," she added as she stood at the edge of the private spa pool overlooking the strip. "Damn."

"Well, it is only for a couple days and…I could have gone for just a normal room like a lot of the other guys did but…unlike them, I'm actually planning to spend some time up here," he added slipping his arms around her waist and nuzzling her cheek. This was going to be the best twenty grand he'd ever spent. She leaned back against him and let out another sigh. "You do like it, right?" he asked, still unsure of whether it was too much, after all, he knew what his plans were. She didn't.

"Of course I do, but then it's just like everything else with you," she arched her neck to look back and up at him, "a little overwhelming, you know?" He smiled and kissed the corner of her eye and then turned his attention back to the view. It was pretty spectacular, just as the pictures on the internet had promised it would be but it was still nothing compared to the woman he held in his arms.

"I didn't even think of bringing a bathing suit," she muttered and Jon laughed, hugging her tighter.

"I think if it's just us that's not really a problem," he told her, withdrawing his hand enough to slip them into the slinky halter top so that he could cup her breasts in his hands. "In fact, I think the sooner you get out of this the better."

"Oh so that's how it is," she giggled and he felt her slide her hand back and between them, cupping his growing erection. "You want to get me in that big round bed and not let me out until we have to go to that breakfast."

"I wasn't thinking about the bed, yet," he told her, turning to aim her directly at the stairs into the pool. "I _was_ kinda thinking about you and me in there," he added, hearing his own voice grow hoarse as he thought about how her curves would look and feel in the dimly lit water.

Edie's hands guided his in taking off her top and then, it seemed to him, that she simply stepped out of her pants, kicked off her shoes, and walked into the water. He stood there, silently dumbfounded, as he watched her disappear beneath the water, her dark hair streaming behind her as her body moved through the liquid like a seal. When she came up for air, at the end of the pool that looked out over the strip, she beckoned for him to join her.

He didn't need to be asked twice.

He wasn't as graceful as she'd been in taking off her clothes, but then she didn't seem to mind him hopping from one foot to the other or getting his head caught in his shirt. She laughed when he dove into the shallow pool, but the next noise she made was a gasp as he came out of the water with his body pressed to hers', his cock already sliding home as he lifted her buoyant body and pressed it against the side of the pool.

"You were right about one thing," he promised as he watched the expression in her eyes take on that dreamy quality that they always did when he made her feel good, which was quickly becoming his aim at all times. "I don't plan on letting you out of my arms until we have to get up in the morning."

"No objection here, Captain," she sighed and offered her soft, succulent lips up for his kiss. He pressed his mouth over hers and, with his hands on her hips, began to move inside of her. She was warm, the water was warm and she was his, at least for the next three days.

* * *

Jon reached across the pillow and carefully, gently, pushed her hair back from her cheek. She was sleeping so soundly that she didn't stir at his touch, but the corner of her full, red mouth lifted, just a little. She was so beautiful it made his heart ache.

"I gotta go, just for a bit, then I'll be back," he told her and then leaned in to press his lips to her cheek. She mumbled something under her breath and then buried her face further into the pillow. With a smile, he got up and walked across the suite and out into the private elevator. "I'm on my way down," he said into his phone and then stuck it in his pocket.

Vegas time, why else was a jeweler open at eight in the morning?

Sharpie and Keith were waiting outside of Leor's decked out in board shorts, loud Hawaiian shirts and flip flops. Jon felt positively conservative in a t-shirt and jeans.

"You sure you want to do this kiddo?" Sharpie asked as Jon moved to push open the doors to the store. Jon turned to his teammate and studied his face. Of all of the guys, he had not expected Sharpie to be the one to try and talk him out of this.

"Very," he replied firmly.

"Look, I know you like the girl." Patrick held up his hands in a defensive manner as Jon gave him a sharp look. "Okay, so you love her but still, you have to admit, it's all a little sudden. Just tell me you've thought about what happens when your parents find out you've asked some girl to marry you they've never even met." Jon smiled. He'd already taken care of that.

"I'm flying them into L.A. They'll meet her in a couple days." The two older men shared a look and some of the air came out of Jon's sails. "What?"

"And have you told your intended that she's about to meet the parents?" Duncs asked and Jon could only shrug. His parents were cool. He couldn't imagine it being a problem. "It's just…in our experience women like to be warned about that kind of thing. It's not something you spring on them and that includes your mom." Jon felt his enthusiasm for this morning's shopping adventure flagging as he found himself thinking about how his mother might take his surprise.

"We're not saying we don't like the girl, or even that you shouldn't show her how you feel but just maybe it doesn't have to be such a big gesture you know?" Sharpie reached out to put his hand on his shoulder but Jon shrugged it off.

"I know what I want and my parents will love her," he grumbled. This is how it always seemed to be. Everyone was either telling him to live a little or they were telling him he was too young for something.

"Well okay then," Dunc made that face that said he was done arguing but he didn't agree, which Jon decided was fine, as long as everyone stopped second guessing him. Nodding, he turned away from them and led the way into the store.

"Good thing I asked the guy to bring every ring he had over a carat," Sharpie whispered to him, patting his back firmly. Jon smiled. They'd get used to the idea, just like he had.

* * *

"Where are we going?" Edie yawned as she slid into the back seat of a taxi.

"The Stratosphere," Jon slid in beside her and slipped his arm around her shoulders.

"I told you I _hate_ heights," she moaned and pressed her forehead to his chest.

"And _I_ told you that I'd hold your hand," he promised, reaching across his lap for her hand and lacing his fingers in hers'. "Some of the guys are gonna be there. That's okay, right?" She nodded and turned her face up to meet his.

"Great, more people to laugh at me when I throw up," she sighed and then stifled another yawn. "Maybe I shouldn't have had that second bagel." She put her head back on his chest and closed her eyes. She felt his fingers stroke through her hair. It was the same comforting sensation that had sent her into dreamland the night before. Or was that this morning? Yeah…yeah probably sometime this morning she thought, sliding her hand up under his t-shirt and over the ridges of his abdominal muscles. When she looked back up at him his eyes were closed and he was wearing a peaceful looking smile. "What are we doing after this?"

"That sort of depends," he grinned without opening his eyes. That made Edie frown but she didn't have time to ask what he meant by it. The cab was coming to a slow stop in front of the Stratosphere. "Coming?" he asked as he handed a twenty to the driver and then reached for the door. Rolling her eyes, Edie accepted his hand out of the car.

"I've got the tickets already," Kane, Keith, Seabrook and Sharp were all waiting just outside the front doors in various states of ultra casual ware, looking very different from the way they had on the plane last night in their designer suits.

"For all the rides?" she asks to which Kane grins menacingly.

"Not gonna puke are ya?" he asked, leering at her.

"If I do, I'm aiming for you and your mullet," she replied and then stuck her tongue out at him. Jon squeezed her hand and she swallowed the other, more descriptive adjectives she had intended to aim at him.

"I'm doing the sky jump," Kane informed everyone as they walked in the front doors. "They're too pussy, what about you?" Pat asked her, raising an eyebrow and looking very smug.

"Oh I'm way too pussy for that but I'm just fine with not spilling my guts all over the pavement," Edie replied with a shrug as they stood, waiting, in front of the elevators that would take them all the way to the top of the thousand foot tower. She heard one of the guys snigger behind her and hoped it was at Kane's expense and not hers'.

She bit her tongue as the guys talked around and over her, goading each other into joining Kane on the controlled free fall. She noticed that Jon hadn't joined in the good natured ribbing and cajoling amongst his friends. Instead, he was staring at the numbers as they lit up, showing how close they were to the top floor.

She looked up at him, at the intensity in his expression and the way his dark eyes were so focused. It made her heart flutter. It reminded her of the way he looked at her when he was trying to push her over the edge, waiting for her to cum so they could go together or when he was watching the action from the bench. He was waiting for something, wanting something.

"Look, if this is something you want to do with the guys, I think I saw some shops downstairs. I could grab a coffee and wait for you," she offered but he just shook his head, once, and continued to stare up at the numbers in the panel above their heads. He did, however, grip her hand just a little tighter, as if he would have said 'no, I want you here' if he had been prepared to speak. When the doors opened, a few feet away from the observation platform, all of the guys rushed to the windows. Kane even stood on the few inches of glass that curved under to meet the floor. Edie felt her head swim. "I hate heights," she hissed, refusing to even go as close as the hip high bar that wound around the deck.

"I'm here," Jon whispered, letting go of her hand and easing his arm around her waist. She let herself lean into the solid width of his chest as she peered out the Vegas Strip.

"It's a _looong_ way down," she gulped. His arm tightened around her and she felt his lips press to the top of her head.

"It'll be worth it, promise."

"Did you know five people have jumped from up here?" Kane turned to grin at both of them and mimed a body in free fall, his arms wind milling wildly. "Imagine…splaaatt!" he added, smacking his hands together gleefully. Edie felt her stomach heave and she closed her eyes.

"Maybe I _should_ go back down," she sighed. She felt Jon's chest move as he laughed soundlessly. That didn't bother her. He wasn't laughing _at_ her.

"C'mon let's just do the Big Shot and then we'll all go down and watch Kane doing a Super Dave." Jon's other hand rubbed at her arm until she nodded and then he reached for her hand again and they turned to follow the rest of the guys towards the doors that led outside.

* * *

Jon's hands felt clammy as he watched Brooksy and Sharpie sit down and pull the safety harnesses down. It was Edie's turn next and then it would be his big moment. The little red heart shaped box in the pocket of his jeans felt like it weighed about a hundred pounds and his heart felt like it was trying to claw its way out of his chest. The air was thin this high up and harder to breathe, or was that just his nerves?

"Go on babe," he whispered into her ear, giving her a small guiding push at the small of her back, She turned to look at him over her shoulder, her eyes wide. "I'll be right behind you," he lied with a smile on his face that he didn't feel. All of the warning words that his teammates had had for him earlier that morning were all playing back in his head as he watched her slowly, gingerly make her way up the few stairs to the ride. He grinned encouragingly at her as she turned to sit down beside Sharpie. She stared back at him with a look of sheer terror. _This will help,_ he told himself as he mounted the stairs, digging his hand into his pocket to retrieve the ring. _She won't be thinking about heights when she realizes why she's really here_.

"Fuckin' hurry up Tayzer," Kane called, his feet swaying excitedly in the air beneath him. He looked like an over excited five year old, Jon thought as he shook his head at him. Kane didn't know. He was the only one who didn't know that this was the moment.

"Just one thing, before I do," he nodded at his friend and then coughed. Suddenly his throat was constricted and he was afraid he was going to drop the ring his hands were shaking so badly. Taking a deep breath, he looked up at her and found Edie staring back at him, her fear momentarily replaced by curiosity. With legs that had begun to feel more like wet cardboard, Jon went down on one knee in front of her and held up the ring. Edie's eyes got very wide and her mouth opened and then she shook her head.

"D…don't Jon…don't," she stammered. She was obviously surprised, maybe even a little bit embarrassed. It was cute, he thought, as he used his other hand to open the box. The bright desert sun caught the emerald cut stone and made it blaze.

"Ever since I met you I haven't been able to think of anything but you and I don't care what the guys say, I know exactly what I want and that's you babe. I want to get married, now, here in Vegas." She was still shaking her head. She was just in shock. "Well?" he asked, sure of her answer. Any minute now she was going to push that safety restraint up and come running down the steps and throw her arms around him.

So why was she still sitting there, holding onto the restraining bar, staring blankly back at him?

"Man…I told you," Brooksy hissed. Jon didn't want to hear it. She was going to say yes. Any minute now, she was going to say yes.

"Sir…the other guests," a voice behind him sounded apologetic but firm. "I have to start the ride." He held his hand up in the universal 'give me a minute' signal. It was just going to be a minute. Any minute now.

"Just come get on the ride," she begged. She didn't want to give her answer in front of everyone. She was modest, he liked that about her.

"Say yes Edie," he called back to her, because she was going to say yes. She just needed a minute.

"Sir…the ride." There it was again, that annoying voice behind him. Couldn't he see that they both just needed a minute? It was just going to be a fucking minute.

"Edie." Just one more minute, that was all she was going to need.

"Jon…." She looked around at the other guys. That was definitely it. She didn't want to do this in front of them. He started to get up, to join her on the ride. Maybe she could whisper her answer to him when he sat down beside her.

"Sir!" A hand on his shoulder restrained him and then pulled him back from the platform just as the ridge shot up into the air.

The last thing he heard was Edie shouting 'no'.


	21. Chapter 21

"Jon!" His big hands rolled into fists, he was back to staring up at the backlit numbers above the elevator doors. His jaw was clenched, he was bouncing on the balls of his feet and he was ignoring her. Or at least he was making a good show of trying to. "Jonathan Bryan Toews, I'm talking to you." He blinked, or at least she thought he did. His jaw moved, almost as if he had flinched. She was almost there but the elevator doors were sliding open. If he got in and she didn't, she wasn't sure what was going to happen. "Damn it Jon!" She broke into a run, which in a pair of canvas espadrilles was a feat in and of itself.

"Don't, just don't," he hissed, holding his hand out towards her as if, with some invisible force field he could stop her from getting into the elevator with him. Edie ignored his verbal warning and the hurt and livid glare he shot at her, following him in and then sending her own warning glower at his teammates as they looked to trail in behind her. She waited for the doors to slide closed before she turned to face his tensely immobile form.

"I know you're pissed," she began, only to have him shake his head, a contemptuous grin on his face. "I'm thinking about you. You hardly know me. You're an important person. I'm sure there are other people who should be in on decision like this, steps that should be taken. It's not something that should be a spur of the moment thing, no matter how sweet that was."

"Pissed? Yeah, I don't think you know how I feel about anything at all," he growled back, his gaze still glued to the numbers above their heads.

"Jon," she began, reaching for his arm only to have him flinch and pull away.

"Don't. Don't touch me right now," he snapped, gnashing his teeth in a way that told her that he was willing the numbers to change faster. He obviously couldn't wait to get away from her.

"We should talk about this, don't you think?" she prompted quietly, doing some Vulcan mind tricks of her own, staring at him until she saw his darks eyes shift, just for a moment to look in her direction.

"Not really," he shrugged and then returned to bouncing nervously and staring at the numbers blinking on and off and then, very suddenly he went still and very slowly turned his enraged gaze on her. Edie felt herself shrink in the face of such blatant fury. It was like standing in front of a blast furnace wearing a parka over a snowsuit.

"Did you even quit your job?" Edie winced. She didn't think Jon was the type of man to actually raise his hand to a woman but she felt as if he had. Her cheeks burned and suddenly she couldn't meet his accusing gaze. "Fuck!" he cursed and then she felt the elevator car shake as he turned and smashed his fists against its wall. "You fucking promised!" His voice filled the space and Edie cringed like a kicked puppy trying to hide in plain sight.

"I don't know…," she began in a voice that sounded like it belonged to her five year old self, not the confident flirtatious woman that she had become. She couldn't finish the thought though. Partly because she didn't really know what to say and partly because he had turned to face her, and his dark eyes were brimming with tears. "I didn't say no to hurt you," she told him instead, crossing the small, but seemingly endless distance between them to wrap her arms around his waist and bury her face in his chest. "It's just all so fast. I don't want this to be one those things that blazes one minute and burns out the next."

"It won't," he replied firmly. She didn't doubt that he believed it but the conviction in his voice did nothing to quell the fear that had set her stomach churning the moment the morning sunlight had glinted off the huge diamond that was now pressed against her hip from where it was currently hiding in his pocket.

"You don't know that," she told him; her eyes shut tight, her cheek pressed over his beating heart. "You _can't_ know that."

* * *

This wasn't the way the morning was supposed to go. She was supposed to say yes. She was supposed to have at the very least given her notice at work. Ideally she was supposed to come home to Chicago with him as his wife. That was the way it was supposed to go.

How could she not have even given notice at work? Did she even love him at all?

"You fucking promised!" He could hardly bear to look at her. It hurt to breathe when all he wanted was to slam her against the wall and make her say yes, show her how much he had wanted just that one little word to come out of her soft, ripe lips.

"I didn't say no to hurt you," she whispered, her bottom lip quavering like a child's as she practically ran to him, wrapping her body around his and clutching onto him like he was some overstuffed teddy bear. His head was suddenly full of her perfume and it made him dizzy. "It's just all so fast. I don't want this to be one those things that blazes one minute and burns out the next." He shook his head. She didn't understand. How could she say that when she had ripped his heart out of his chest and stomped all over it? How could she make it sound like she was doing him some kind of fucking favor?

"It won't." He knew it the way he knew that the sun was going to come up in the morning and down at night. He knew it the way he knew how to breathe. He knew it the way he knew the dimples at the small of her back, the scar on her right knee and the tiny piece of pencil lead embedded in the palm of her left hand. He knew. He just knew.

"You don't know that," she laid her cheek against his chest and hugged him tighter. "You can't know that."

"But I _do_." He lifted her chin so that she had to look at him. He hated that he was crying like a fucking kid with a skinned knee but he wasn't going to hide it from her either. She'd done this to him. She should know this is what she had reduced him to. "And the thing is, if you don't, if you can't feel it," he continued, peeling her hand from around his waist and placing it gingerly on her chest, "then I guess you just did me a huge favor."

"Jon, it isn't that simple," she sighed, looking down at their hands and then back up at him.

"It is to me," he told her and meant it.

With impeccable timing, the doors opened and he turned and walked away from her. She wasn't going to follow, he knew that. After all, what was there left to say?

* * *

"He'll come back. I mean a guy can only sit and watch the rippers so long and I mean if it was me, you might have to wait all day, but it's Jon so…." Kane grinned like he'd said something funny. Edie seriously considered dumping her giant strawberry margarita over his head, except that she seriously needed the injection of tequila it was providing.

"Short stuff is right, about one thing. He'll be back. He's just…well he'll be kinda embarrassed," Sharpe pointed out and Edie nodded. It wasn't her fault that he'd decided to make the grand gesture in front of his teammates but she knew that she could have handled it better. She hated herself for putting the hurt and pain in his eyes that had been the last thing she'd seen before he'd blended into the crowd and left her standing there, alone, staring after him.

"He'll just need a little space," Seabrook reached over and put his hand over top of hers. Edie looked down at his big hand and then up at him and he quickly withdrew it. The last thing she wanted was some man, any other man, touching her.

"I _do_ love him," she informed the men sitting around the table. Not that it was any of their business but she felt the need to clarify at least that point. "Maybe he is mortified or whatever, but I did the right thing, right?" She looked at all of their faces, and was surprised to find each man nodding, except for Kane. "What? You were dead set against the idea of us even seeing each other. You couldn't possibly want him to marry me." Kane shrugged and swigged back the last of his pint and signaled the scantily clad waitress for another.

"I think the guy's nuts for even considering it," Jon's curly haired teammate agreed, "but I also think that he should do whatever makes him happy and…yeah I don't get it but I know that you make the guy fucking happy so…yeah, whatever." Edie's mouth literally hung open as she stared across the table at the nonchalant Kane who had already gone back to watching a group of girls pass by. One of them was wearing a tiara and veil. She was probably on her hen night. They all looked happy and it made Edie wonder what it was she was so afraid of.

"But you get it right? I mean this isn't just about me," she turned back to the table to find Kane's chair empty. She looked up to find him already following the gaggle of girls. Shaking her head she turned back to Jon's other teammates. "He's got this whole crazy life with all the marketing for the team and his Canadian Tire kids start thing…he couldn't have thought this through," she insisted, expecting all of the men sitting around the table would agree, but to a man, they all shook their heads.

"We rode him pretty hard on this," Seabrook began.

"He's a serious kid…no." Sharpe smiled and shook his head. "He's a sensible, sincere kid and he wouldn't _ever_ do anything he hasn't though through. Believe me. Sometimes it pisses me off when I can see him doing it out on the ice but that's him. He wouldn't be Tayzer if he wasn't over thinking everything."

"Aww fuck," Edie sighed and dropped her head into her hands. "I've really fucked up, haven't I?" She didn't look up to see their reaction. She didn't want to. The churning in her own gut was bad enough.

"If it helps," she felt Sharpe's hand on her shoulder, "it makes us all feel better about his choice that you realize there's more to him than a multi-million dollar contract." Edie lifted her gaze to meet the handsome winger's and felt a hint of relief when he gave her a warm smile. "The kid's crazy about you. He'll be back, I guarantee it." Edie wanted to believe it but there was a part of her that knew, even if he did, she'd have to be ready with her own grand gesture to bridge the divide.

"I'm gonna need your help," she said solemnly, looking at each man at the table. "Who's in?"


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Another rum and coke appeared in front of him as he heard a butt settling into the seat at the bar immediately beside him. Shaking his head, Jon sighed and picked up the drink to take a sip.

"How'd you know where to find me?"

"You're so fucking predictable," Kaner replied in that way of his that said he's pretty proud of himself and everyone else should be too.

"Am I?" Jon asked, swirling the ice around in the drink before taking another sip. "Yeah, I guess I am." _I must be_, he thought, or Patrick wouldn't have found him in this random hotel bar. Not the hotel they were staying in. He wasn't even sure which one it was. He had just walked until he got hot and thirsty and then went into the closest door and looked for a bar, which, luckily, hadn't been that hard to do in Vegas.

"So, are you crazy about the chick or what?" Jon tursn and look quizzically at Patrick who's just staring back at hin like he's actually interested in the answer, which can't be right. Kaner doesn't give a shit about anyone's life but his own.

"You don't have to keep me company or make small talk and shit," he muttered, downing the rest of the drink and then signaling the bartender for another.

"No, man…really, because your fiancée is pretty upset that you walked out on her." Staring at the bottom of his empty glass, Jon considered chewing on the ice.

"She's not my fiancée. She said no. Or did you miss that part?" he grumbled, deciding that he would chew on the ice after all, tossing a couple of cubes into his mouth. They make a satisfying sound as he crunches them into a hundred pieces which he then proceeds to roll around his mouth so his tongue can feel as numb as the rest of his body does.

"I don't think she meant no," Kane replies, like there's an actual possibility that he had heard wrong, which couldn't be right. Jon knew what he'd heard. He also knew that she had tried to put a positive spin on turning him down. Like that's possible.

"Yeah? Well, you're the only person I know that would think no meant something else," he grumbled, reaching for the drink the bartender was putting in front of me before he can even stop filling it. "Shots…tequila…like ten of them," Jon instructed him, right before downing the entire glass of rum and coke, leaving a satisfyingly smooth burning sensation at the back of his throat.

"You don't do shots," Kaner shook his head at the bartender and made one of those faces that says 'my friend is crazy, don't listen to him'.

"I don't propose very well either, apparently," Jon showed his friend his teeth like he was some kind of rabid dog and Patrick just rolled his eyes in return. "I guess there's a first and last time for everything."

"I'm sorry to hear about that," Patrick shrugged and grabbed the first shot the bartender pours and threw it down his throat. He didn't reach for the salt or the lime, hardcore."You're no fun when you're pissed about something. This weekend was supposed to be fun and I don't know if you've noticed, but you're kinda bringing down the tone." If he hadn't already been in such a foul mood, that might have made Jon laugh, as it was, he afforded his teammate the briefest of smiles as he reached for the next shot but Pat's reflexes were that much faster and he was already tipping the golden liquid into his mouth. "Ya snooooze ya loooose," he shrugs and then, surprisingly, waves off the next pour. "That includes your girlfriend. If you want to salvage the weekend and stop moping around then you'd better get a move on. Sharpie was going to take her to the airport."

Jon wanted to shrug it off, to act like he didn't care but almost as soon as he thought to do that, he found himself already pushing away from the bar and sliding off of the bar stool. H was pissed and more than just a little humiliated but he still loved her.

"Well don't just sit there Kaner. Let's go."

"I thought you'd never ask," Kane grinned and spun his chair around before hopping off and marching ahead, like a man on a mission.

* * *

Looking like something from the set of a Star Trek movie, Moon was the bar at the top of the Palms with a roof that slid open to let in the cool night air and the sparkle of the stars overhead. That wasn't the reason she'd picked it, nor was it because it was in the same hotel in which they were staying. The reason she'd chosen this spot was for the dramatic staircase on which she was currently standing, nervously rolling a thick, silver band in the palm of her hand.

"Here they come!" Sharpe came running into the private club, waving for one of the servers to dim the lights until only Edie was lit. Her skin prickled in anticipation. Her stomach felt like it was home to a hive of bees.

"I thought we were going to the airport," she heard Jon complain loudly as Kane pushed, pulled and dragged him into the empty club. She didn't know how they'd done it, or how much it had cost, but she was grateful to the two Patrick's. She'd have to figure out some way of thanking them, later, _if_ this went well.

"Stop yer bitchin' and get in here," Kane cajoled, giving her a thumbs up and a wink as he gave Jon one, last hard push that brought him, stumbling to the bottom of the stairs.

He blinked up at her, clearly surprised. Well, that had been the idea. The element of surprise and the ethereal lighting added to the drama of the moment. Edie knew what the dress she was wearing had looked like under the harsh light of the boutique shop she'd bought it in, or rather Seabrook had handed over his credit card once he'd seen her go a little green around the gills when she'd looked at the price tag. As Jon looked up at her now and any and all trace of annoyance leaked out of his features, she knew that even if she had to pay his teammates back a few dollars a week for ten years, this moment had been utterly worth the exorbitant price tag and double sided tape that was keeping the Grecian style strapless dress in place.

"Jesus…fuck you're beautiful," he breathed, still standing at the foot of the steps, staring up at her now with an expression that could entirely summed up in one word, astonishment. Taking a deep, steadying breath Edie slipped the ring on her thumb, held out her hand and watched each and every step he took until he was just one step below her and they were eye to eye.

"Still mad at me?" she asked quietly and watched while he fought with the obviously warring emotions inside him at that moment.

"Disappointed," he answered finally, taking her hand in both of his and looking down at it as he turned it over and ran the pad of his thumb along her life line. "I thought we were on the same page."

"I don't think we're all that far off," she told him sincerely. He looked up at her through his long, dark eyelashes. There was a brief glimmer of hope in his eyes that, as quickly as it had risen, was swallowed up by hurt and anger. She hated that she'd wounded his pride. "I _do_ love you."

"I know," he shrugged and cast his eyes back down to their joined hands. "I guess I uh…I guess I just rushed things…or whatever."

"Maybe just a bit," she smiled at him, trying to be encouraging and squeezed his hand but when he looked up, there was no sign that he was going to find any humor in this situation. _Okay, get on with it girl, put the poor boy out of his misery_ she told herself, taking another deep, centering breath. "Jonathon Brian Toews, will you not marry me?" she asked, and waited for him to decipher what she'd just said. She knew he had when he looked up at her with his dark eyes narrowed and his lips pursed. He thought she was making fun of him. "Will you let me quit my job and move to Chicago and meet all your friends first? Will you invite your parents down so we can have that awkward moment at the door when your mom realizes that I'm actually living with you and she doesn't even know me? Will you take me shopping and let me use your credit card so I can make some little stock girl jealous?" That did it. That had finally made Captain Seriously upset smile. Cradling his cheek with her other hand, Edie let all of her feelings for him fill her eyes. "Then, when the summer comes around, will you take me to your lake and let me bait your hook and cook the fish that you catch and figure out just exactly who Jonathan Bryan Toews not the hockey player is? And then, after all that's done and if you still think that you can put up with me," she worked her hand free from his and slid the solid, silver wring from her thumb and reached for his hand, "will you do me the honor of making me the luckiest girl in the whole world and marry me?" His chocolate brown eyes filled with silvery tears and the relief on his face was palpable as he nodded exuberantly before throwing his arms around her and lifting her off of her feet.

"Yes, fucking yes!" His voice was muffled with his face pressed into her hair but she could tell by the clapping and earsplitting wolf whistles that were coming from below that his boys didn't need to hear the words to know that he'd said what she hadn't been able to. Not that any of that seemed to matter now.

* * *

"So do you forgive me now?" she asked as he watched her trace invisible patterns on his chest as I ran my fingers through her hair. The lights from the strip kept catching the ring on his hand and every time it did, it made him smile.

"Mmmm, if you do that again, I might think about it," Jon teased, grinning down at her as she wrinkled her cute little nose up at him. He wondered if he'd ever get to the point where he could take for granted how this woman made him feel, if he could ever get bored of watching her eyes roll back in her head as she screamed out his name and dug her fingernails into his back. Maybe he would, maybe not. He hoped he never did.

"Seriously though, do you?" she asked, resting her chin on the back of her hands in the middle of his chest and staring up at him. "Do you understand why I said what I did?" He noticed that she didn't bring up the whole 'no' thing, which was probably wise. There was still a part of him that was stung over it.

"Yeah, I get it," he sighed, twirling her hair around his finger and wondering just how many shades of brown there was in the world. He could see milk chocolate, espresso, bronze, walnut….

"Then what _are_ you thinking about?" she asked, digging her nails into his pectoral muscle until he flinched.

"Nothing much," he answered honestly, letting the curl slide off of his finger and watching as it bounced back into place. "Right now, I sort of feel like I don't have to think about anything and…," he grinned down at her and smiled, "I really like that feeling." Her eyes danced and he full lips turned up in a grin that he knew as well as he knew his teammate Kane's, meant nothing but trouble.

"So you're all…relaxed?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. Jon shook his head and laughed.

"What? What are you gonna do?" He watched her disappear backwards beneath the sheets and closed his eyes, anticipating her warm, wet mouth sliding down over his…and then he heard her footsteps on the floor and his eyes sprang open. She was still wearing the gold strappy heels that laced all the way up to her knees, but now she was also wearing his away jersey and leaning, suggestively, against the floor to ceiling glass wall, biting down on her bottom lip and giving him that 'come hither' stare of hers' that he had not been able to resist, ever.

"Are you sure you're not still just a little bit mad?" she asked, her bottom lip jutting out as she batted her eyelashes at him coquettishly. Shaking his head, he tossed the sheets aside and walked over to her, pressing his body against hers and his hands, flush to the window on either side of her head.

"Oh, I'm still a little mad," he growled into her neck and felt her entire body shudder in response. He felt her hands sweep up his back as he kissed his way up to her lips, capturing her mouth beneath his as her fingers dug into his shoulders. He felt more than heard her moan as he slid his hand down and then up under his jersey, sliding it slowly up over the curve of her hip, into the valley of her waist and then up until he was cupping her breast, feeling the weight of it in his hand. He ran his thumb over her nipple as it hardened into a tight little peak that made her gasp when he pinched it. Her hands slid down his back, making him shiver or was the room cold? There was one spot that was hot, of that he was certain. "Turn around baby," he whispered against her mouth.

She needed no more encouragement than that. With her hands pressed against the cool pane of glass and her feet spread wide apart to give him the best access, he sheathed himself inside of her, groaning as her warm, wet heat enveloped him. How many other couples were doing the same thing in Vegas tonight he wondered as he slid his arm around her waist and pulled her back against him, steadying her as he buried himself as deeply in her as her body would allow.

"I love you," she sighed, arching her neck and looking back at him, offering her sweet mouth to him. He kissed her, hard, forcing his tongue into her mouth as his free hand sought out the sweet ripe berry of her nipple. She bucked against him when he pinched it, pressing the soft flesh of her ass against his thighs.

"You feel so good," he told her, sliding his hand down over her stomach and down, into the slick cleft between her thighs. She cried out when his fingers began to work her clit. Her body tightened around his and he felt his balls tuck up tight. "Cum with me baby," he asked, working her nipple and her clit at the same time, her little whimpers and moans egging him on, making him harder, thicker until he thought his brain was going to explode from the amazing sensations. "I'm gonna fill you up," he promised as pushed back against him, meeting each of his thrusts as best she could.

"Do it. Fucking do it. Cum in me baby," she whimpered, bending at the waist and shoving her ass against him.

"Cum with me Edie," he hissed, knowing he was close, that buzzing in his ears and the almost painful tightening of his scrotum serving as a ten second warning.

"So close…yeah baby," she sighed, one of her hands reaching down to press his hand down more firmly over her clit. "Like that, oh god, yeah like that," she gasped, her head falling back, her eyes closed, a depraved smile on her face. He felt her pussy clenching around his dick and then her entire body twitched and he was gone.

"Oh fuuuuuuck Edie. Fuck I love you," he groaned, his knees almost buckling as stars swam in front of his eyes or was it all the lights of the strip and did it matter? All was right in his world. "I love you," he whispered again as her body went limp in his arms, as they slid apart and with the last of his strength he swept her up into his arms and carried her over to the bed.

"I'm such a lucky girl," she mumbled, curling her body against his as he pulled the sheets up over them both, tucking them under her chin as he put his arms around her. "I love you Captain Serious," she whispered against the curve of his neck and Jonathan grinned to himself as he closed his eyes.


	23. Chapter 23

_I was actually going to leave this story as it was in the last chapter, but after seeing Tayzer's post game after beating the Flames last night...well I guess I couldn't... Just a note, if my French isn't perfect, I apologize, it's as good as I could do.  
_

**Chapter 23**

It was unusual to get a long home stand before Christmas. Jon couldn't really remember the last time he hadn't been flying home Christmas Eve or flying his parents into somewhere. In fact he couldn't remember the last time they'd had so many home games in December. _It must be some kind of secondary prize for winning_ _The Cup_, he thought to himself as he snuggled closer to the warm body next to him.

He'd never, ever decorated his place for Christmas either. He never had the time. He wasn't as bad as some of his teammates at least he did make time to shop for Christmas presents. In fact, he was usually done by now, with nothing but the wrapping left to do. This year he had one more present to get.

"I have to go to practice soon," he whispered, sliding his hand down into the valley of her waist and up onto her hip. She made a sleepy sort of mewing sound and pressed her ass back against him. Smiling to himself, Jon pressed his lips to the curve of her neck and was rewarded with contented sounding sigh. "What does the lady of leisure have planned for today?" She grunted her displeasure at being teased but didn't argue the point. It wasn't her fault that the position promised her at Judge and Dolph wasn't available until the New Year but that didn't stop him from teasing her about all of her spare time.

"I have things to do," she grumbled into the pillow as she rolled over and pulled her knees up beneath her giving him better and easier access to her soft, warm centre. Jon slid his hand over the curve of her ass and then slid his fingers along her velvety folds.

"So what _are_ you doing today?" he asks, pressing his fingers up against her clit while he pressed his lips to a spot between her shoulders that sent a fine trembling through her entire body.

"I have to get groceries," she gasped, a little breathless as she dug her fingers into the pillow.

"We can order dinner you know," he whispered into her ear. "You don't have to cook a big meal to impress my mother," he added, brushing her hair aside so that he could kiss the nape of her neck.

"I want to," she whispered, her body leaning heavily against his as she turned to look towards him. "I want her to like me." Jon pressed his lips to her shoulder as he met her worried gaze.

"What's not to like?" She smiled at him and then let her head drop down, her hair falling over her face as she let out a long, low groan as he slid two fingers inside of her and bent them up to press them against that spot that made her tip her head back and cry out. A month of waking up next to her nearly every morning and he wasn't tired of this yet.

"Please," she whimpered, turning to look at him over her shoulder, her big cat green eyes pleading.

"Please what babe?" he grinned back at her, holding her gaze while he kissed his way down the length of her spine, each caress causing her to shiver beneath him. She groaned and closed her eyes again, letting all of that dark espresso coloured hair fall in front of her face. Reaching forward, he gathered a handful of it, gently moving it away from her face. "What do you want Eden?" She opened those amazing cat like eyes of hers' and glared. Jon grinned back at her, waiting. She hated begging. He kind of liked it.

"Just give it to me," she demanded, her full, ripe bottom lip jutting out defiantly and her jade green eyes narrowed threateningly. Feeling playful, Jon opened his eyes wide and stared blankly back at her.

"Give you what? What do you want?" Sliding his hand free, he brought it down on her ass cheek hard enough to make a good sound but not, he hoped, hard enough to hurt. Edie hissed like a snake but didn't wince. Instead, a mischievous but not at all innocent smile grew on her face as she wiggled her ass at him.

"Do that again…I _dare_ you." The palm of his hand still tingled where it hand come in contact with her bare flesh as he raised it again only this time as he brought his hand down, she squealed and scooted off the side of the bed, landing on her feet and ran out of the room. Laughing, Jon jumped off of the bed and ran after her.

"Get back here you tease!" he called after her, stopping to listen for the sounds of her foot falls.

"Don't you have practice to go to?" she called, peeking around the corner from the kitchen.

"Not yet," he called back, running for the kitchen and skidding around the corner in time for her to disappear into the living room. "Get back here woman!"

"Or you'll do what?" she yelled back, appearing, for an instant before he could hear her running down the hall followed by the sound of the bathroom door slamming. Jon shook his head and headed down the hall. He tugged on the door. It was locked.

"Edie…Edie open the door," he sighed, looking down at the handle expectantly. When it didn't turn he sighed, shook his head again and banged on the door. "What the hell Edes?"

"Just a minute," she called back and Jon shook his head again.

"Edes, I don't really have _that_ much time. What are you doing?" Leaning against the door, he crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

"Getting this." She reappeared with what looked like a painter's box. "I bought new sheets, I thought we'd use these before I wash those and put them in the cupboard." Jon looked down at the box as she opened it and then back up at her. Edie grinned. "It's edible chocolate paint. You game?"

"Yeah," he grinned back at her. "Fuck practice. Let's paint."

* * *

"Is that you babe?" Edie tossed that last new throw pillow on the bed and then reached down to loosen her robe. She hadn't planned on buying him anymore gifts when she was out but she'd walked past a fancy Parisian lingerie store three times while she'd been in the mall and every time the red and white striped satin bustier that looked like a candy cane kept calling out to her. She'd bought the matching ruffled panties and green and red striped thigh highs with red bows on the top. There was no point in saving them for Christmas Eve, considering his parents would be here by then and for some reason Jon didn't think they should stay at a hotel.

"There's lots of room," he'd told her with this puzzled look on his face, like she'd suggested something entirely off the wall.

"I'd never ask my parents to stay here," Edie grumbled to herself as she took one last look at the bed with its brand new gold, taupe and black Chelsea Frank bedding set, complete with silk and velvet cushions and throws. It was still masculine and dark to go with the rest of his boring brown furniture, but now there was some texture and prints that said a woman lived there. "Babe did you get my text? Did you bring home some wine?" she called as she slipped into the pair of black patent leather Louboutin platform heels that Jon had bought her for Christmas but hadn't been able to keep himself from asking her to wear them immediately…in bed.

Edie chuckled to herself at the memory of him running his fingers over the long slim heel and then up the back of her calf. She gave a little shiver as she looked down at her legs. They looked two miles long.

"Jonny?" she called and then rolled her eyes. He was probably still wearing his iPod, lighting candles and opening the wine. She strode out of the bedroom and down the hallway and, as she turned the corner into the kitchen, she decided to undo her red satin robe and let it hang loose to let him get the full effect. "Merry Christmas baby," she purred and then stopped dead in her tracks.

She didn't have to ask who they were. What other middle aged couple would be prowling around in the semi dark that obviously had keys and didn't feel the need to knock.

"You must be Andree," Edie pulled her robe closed as she felt her face burn. The woman stared back at her and didn't reach out to take the hand that Edie offered.

"Et qui croyez-vous que vous exécutez environ la moitié maison de mon fils nus?"

* * *

Jon whistled to himself as he pulled his keys out of his pockets, sliding the bottle of champagne under his arm and the bouquet of roses under the other. One more game and he was a free man for a few, precious days. Plus, this was going to be his first Christmas with Eden, and his parents, which was why he'd brought the roses and the Champagne and not just the bottle of red that she'd asked him to bring home. She was stressed about his parents coming and tonight he wanted to persuade her that everything was going to be okay, that his parents were going to love her because he did.

Pushing the door open, he pocketed his keys and kicked the door closed behind him while he rearranged his bundles in his hands.

"Honey I'm home," he called as he toed off his shoes and then went back to humming to himself. As a professional hockey player, it wasn't strictly forbidden to spend his 'nap time' having sex, but it was something that was not only frowned upon but also openly discouraged. It was something he knew that Kaner did, if not on a fairly regular basis than at least often enough that it should have affected his game. Jon didn't think it had, or not enough to discourage him from spending the next couple of hours in bed with Edie doing that Spanish Butterfly thing that Brooksy had been talking about during practice.

He was still thinking about that when he rounded the corner and headed into the living room to find that Eden was not alone and she was definitely not in the mood to get it on.

"Maman, papa…vous n'étiez pas censé être ici jusqu'à demain," he mumbled, sending Edie an apologetic look which she ignored in a very obvious way. She was wearing those expensive sexy shoes that he'd bought her, some striped stockings and a red robe. He was trying not to imagine what was, or was not underneath, or what he was going to be missing out on.

"Allez-vous nous présenter la jeune fille?" his mother asked, her gaze locked on Edie who was studying the toes of her shoes and, by the look of it, grinding her teeth. "Et maintenant s'il vous plaît me dire que l'anneau n'est pas de vous."

"Maman, papa, this is Edie…Eden…my fiancée." This was going to suck. There was no way around it. Edie was clearly pissed, and she had a right to be. He'd meant to tell them but he'd just wanted to do it face to face. He'd wanted to do it when he picked them up at the airport tomorrow but it was obviously too late for that. His mother….

"Mon fils, nous n'avons jamais recontre cette fille," his mother glanced at Edie who shot him a dark, threatening look. Yeah, this was going to suck, big time.

"I know…and I meant to tell you," he began, feeling like he was five again, caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Or worse, when he was eleven, caught red handed with his dad's Playboys. "Je viens d'être tellement absorbé par tout, I guess I just didn't think…." Jon bit back the rest of his words before they helped him to dig the hole he was already in even deeper. Both his mother and Edie looked up at him with the same 'I dare you to say it' expression on their faces. "And we're not engaged…not properly anyway," he continued, trying his best to fill in the hole, even if it meant pulling the dirt in on top of him. "She said no, for now," he added, sending another hopeful glance towards Edie who rolled her eyes at him.

"You said no to my son?" His mother raised her eyebrows and it was all Jon could do not to laugh. One minute his mom was pissed because Edie might have said yes and now the mother bear was insulted that she'd said no.

"I did," Edie replied affording him a sideways glance that was almost forgiving. "I thought he was moving a little fast. I wanted to meet you…both of you, first. Get to know, let you get to know me, know that you can trust me. This," she added, smoothing the red satin robe over her knees as best she could in an attempt to preserve some modesty, "was not really the way I wanted this meeting to go." As Jon watched his mother consider Edie's words while Edie chewed anxiously on her bottom lip, he couldn't help but recall with a smile Edie saying that her first meeting with his mother would be an awkward one. He wondered if her lighthearted words were haunting her now.

"And you're…living here…with Jon?" He took that as his cue to cross the floor, handing his mother the roses as if he'd always meant them to be hers' and handed the bottle of Cristale to Edie before leaning in and kissing her cheek. She was looking like she wanted something to hold onto.

"She is mom and she has a job…or will after Christmas," he added, because he didn't lie to his parents. That hadn't been the way he was raised. He sat on the edge of the chair that Edie was sitting in as if she was sitting in front of a firing squad and put his arm around her shoulders. "But I'm just doing what you told me to do, both of you," he added, looking to his Dad who so far had kept his own counsel. His father returned his son's confident smile with a slight nod. "I'm following my heart. This is right and after you've been here for a couple of days, you'll know it too."


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

"I'm not going out there with them."

"I don't know what you're so worried about," he grinned in that confident way that usually she found charming but now she just found mildly irritating. "I love you. They'll love you. Easy," he continued to grin, but now he reached for the belt of her robe and started to tug. Making a face, she batted his hand away and pulled her sash tighter.

"They won't," she could already tell that his parents still pictured him as their little boy and were shocked to see that their little boy was having an adult, live in relationship. "No, they definitely won't," she repeated, crossing her arms in front of her chest and leaned against the door. "I can't believe that they just showed up," she hissed, kicking the expensive heels off and pushing them aside. "I wanted to be the picture of a domestic goddess when they got here…not some kind of puck fuck," she added with a grimace.

"Momma's little boy would never, ever bring home a puck bunny for Christmas," Jon purred, reaching out to brush her hair back behind her ear and then, with a salacious growl, leaned in and pressed his lips to the curve of her neck. With a roll of her eyes and clenching her teeth, she put both hands against his chest and shoved, hard. Unfortunately he was tall and strong and despite her best efforts she couldn't move him a single inch.

"That is exactly what I'm afraid of. You do realize that your mother thinks I'm a tramp, right?" Without missing a beat, Jon grabbed a hold of her arms and pinned both of them up over her head.

"My tramp," he whispered in her ear, keeping her wrists pinned over her head in one hand while his other hand slid up her inner thigh. "My sexy, dirty little whore." Edie closed her eyes and bit down on her bottom lip as he slid his hand into her panties and then his long, thick fingers into her. She stood on tip toe and gasped as he slid two fingers up inside of her.

"Your parents are _right there_," she reminded him through clenched teeth but she pressed down against his hand, sending a mixed signals.

"You _can_ be quiet can't you?" he whispered back, his breath moist and warm on her neck. Edie closed her eyes and shuddered. Why was it so hard to say no to him?

"And what do you think they'll think we're doing?" she managed to ask before biting her lip again to stifle a whimper as he drew his fingers up to her clit and began tracing small, slow circles around the sensitive bundle of nerves.

"My mom, probably having a nap while she makes my pre-game meal. My dad on the other hand," he continued with a deep, throaty chuckle, "probably knows better." Edie bit back a groan as Jon pressed the hard length of his erection against her hip. "You look so good baby…good enough to eat." She heard the sound of his zipper lowering and knew that she should say no, that at the very least she should make an attempt to talk him out of this, but as soon as he let go of her wrists and instead, slid his hands up the back of her thighs and lifted her off the floor, she knew she wouldn't…couldn't resist.

"You are _soooo_ not the good boy they think you are," she whispered against his mouth as he helped her wrap her legs around his waist.

"You never complain," he whispered back and then pressed her up against the wall as his first, hard thrust forced the air from her lungs and made it clear that, this time at least, she was only along for the ride.

* * *

"Is he asleep?" Edie slid the backing onto her plain silver hoop earrings as she nodded. She'd chosen the simple no nonsense accessories instead of the emerald ones Jon had brought her back from the Hawks' New York road trip in an effort not give his parents any ammunition. It was also the reason she'd chosen the high waist black wide leg pants and simple soft black sweater. She wasn't a gold digger, but they didn't know that; at least not yet. "He's always been good at falling asleep anywhere any time, le bénisse." Edie tried her best to hide the smile that immediately tugged at the corners of her mouth when she heard his mother speak softly in French, the same language that her son had just used to utter numerous dirty, sexy things in her ear while he'd fucked her until they'd both slid, boneless to the floor.

"I wondered about that," Edie stuck a spoon in the thick looking sauce that was bubbling on the stove and then blew across it. "He does fall asleep fast." She paused with the spoon almost at her lips, wincing as she wondered if she was rubbing in the fact that she was sleeping with their son. She glanced up at his mother's face and Andree's lips were visibly pursed. "Sorry," she whispered and then stuck the spoon in her mouth as she made a beeline for the kitchen table.

"You think I'm being overprotective," Andree said defensively and Edie winced as she pulled the chair out on the opposite side of the table from where Jon's father was reading the local Chicago rag.

"He's your son, I think I'd be worried if you weren't," she replied calmly while she nervously held onto the edge of the chair. Bryan looked up from the newspaper and gave her a warm smile but then returned to reading without saying another word.

"He's not…qui est le mot? Worldy like young mister Kane." Andree made a face as she said Pat's name like it was something that tasted sour. Edie didn't exactly blame her, except that now that she'd been forced to spend some time with him, she had to admit he wasn't quite as bad as she'd thought. Still, she knew what Jon's mother was driving at, but that she had her editing the first two answers that came to mind.

"I know what you mean, but if you're trying to say that I'm trying to take advantage of him in any way…."

"You're not, are you Andree?" He didn't even look up from the paper when he said it and it had the tone of a man who had gotten used to corralling his wife. Edie smiled over at him and Bryan looked up, just for a minute and winked. When she glanced back towards Jonathan's mother, however, Edie's momentary feeling of wellbeing quickly evaporated.

"You're wearing that…_ring_." Edie looked down at her hand, at the big rock on her hand. It was a little ostentatious, but she'd gotten used to it. "You said you told him no, but you're wearing _that_." Nodding, Edie took a deep breath and reminded herself that this woman had no reason to trust her or take her word for the fact that she really wasn't a gold digging pucky bunny whore.

"Jon wanted to get married, in Vegas, about a month ago," she explained in a calm voice and didn't look up until she heard the gasp. Only then did she meet his mother's furious gaze. "I know and that's part of why I said no, to that. Not to _him_. Not to _being_ with him. I love your son. I tried not to, just so you know, I really tried not to feel anything for him. The thing is, you've raised such a sweet, kind, considerate and loving man that it's hard not to. Impossible in my case, and I'm definitely not a Hawks fan" she added with a shrug and a sigh. "So I know you don't have any reason to trust me, but I've moved my whole life here to be with Jon and I'm pretty determined to make this work but I expect we'll be seeing enough of each other over the next few months that you'll find that out for yourself." Edie took another deep breath and then reached for the bottle of Pinot Noir that had been opened and left to breathe in the middle of the table, pouring a healthy dose of it into a glass for herself.

"Andree," Bryan's voice cut into the silence that had filled the room after her speech and Edie stopped, mid sip and stared over the rim of the glass at him. "Do you think we raised our son to make a foolish choice? Or do you think we raised him to make good, sound decisions?" Holding her breath, and still holding the glass up to her lips, Edie turned to look over at Andree who was now staring into the still bubbling pot.

"Les bons choix," Jon's mother replied through clenched teeth as Edie took a large gulp of the rich, red liquid.

"Then stop treating the poor girl like she's robbed a bank," Bryan said in a tone that made it abundantly clear that the conversation was over, and then he turned the page of the paper as Edie tried very hard not to spit wine across the table.

* * *

"You'll be fine," he whispered in her ear as he wrapped his arms around her. "You've got all the other WAGs to defend you if my mom starts picking on you again," Jon added and Edie didn't need to see his face to know that he was fighting not to crack up right now. She was wishing she hadn't told him that his father had intervened in their bitch session. Far from being sympathetic, Jon thought it was funny. Digging her nails into his ribs through his dress shirt, she felt his sharp intake of breath and grinned.

"I'll make you pay later," she promised and heard his deep, breathy chuckle in response.

"Promises, promises," he laughed as he pressed his lips to the top of her head.

"I'll remember this Tayzer," she threatened, digging her nails in harder until she heard his sharp intake of breath. "I know all your ticklish spots," she added, drawing her nails very slowly upwards and though his suit jacket didn't allow her to get to the exact spot that she knew would immediately have him squirming and giggling like a six year old girl, he still jumped and gasped. "And I know just what to do to torture you," she added, sliding her hands around to his back and down until she was groping his ass.

"Yeah, but once I'm done I can still torture you until you cum and cum and…."

"Get a roooooooom!" Kane yelled from across the parking lot and Jon laughed as she jumped like she'd been caught with her finger in the icing.

"I should head over to the Preds dressing room and see if anyone wants a hun spot to send him head first into the boards," she grumbled as Jon took a step back from her, straightening his tie.

"I doubt you'd have to offer them more than a nickel," he laughed, "but if you want to offer them a hun _not_ to put me into the boards, I wouldn't say no."

"I haven't decided if I want to take you off you hit list or not," she replied, baring her teeth at him which only made him laugh.

"If I'm injured, the only one that suffers is you," he reminded her, reaching to grab her and pull her back towards him but she only danced out of his reach.

"Your mommy's here to look after you now. I'll just poke whatever hurts," she threatened, holding her hands out like claws, nails towards him.

"Not if you want to keep impressing my mother you won't," he grinned a challenge back at her and Edie promptly threw up her arms.

"Not fair," she moaned, her eyes rolling back in her head.

"Oh c'mon, when I got up for dinner you guys all seemed to be doing great," he added, his tone more sweet as he put his arms around her and hugged her to him. Was there a more comforting feeling in the entire world? She didn't think so.

"If by getting along you mean sitting around in dead silence while your father watches his boy on the news and your mother does the white glove treatment around the apartment," she sighed, shutting her eyes and concentrating on the rise and fall of his chest and the warmth of his body pressed close to hers'. What she'd wanted to do when he woke up from his nap was drag him back to bed and have him fuck her until she screamed so loud she chased his mother away.

"Babe, I have a cleaner," he reminded her in a tone that she could tell meant he was doing his best not to laugh at her but it was clearly a difficult task.

"Well do me a favor," she looked up into his dark eyes and batted her eyelashes, "don't tell her, 'kay?"

"Ummm sweetheart, she hired my cleaner," he shrugged his massive shoulders and the corners of his lips twitched. Oh yeah, it was costing him a grand effort not to laugh at her.

"Jeeezus! You are a momma's boy aren't you?" she battered his chest with her fists but he didn't let go of her.

"Well she didn't want me hiring my maid for the same reasons the Pats hired theirs," he tried to explain as she twisted out of his arms and crossed her own in front of her, pouting. He held his hands out in front of his chest at an impossible distance.

"Even Barbi's jugs aren't that big," she mumbled, but didn't recoil when he put his arms around her again, but neither did she melt against him.

"You're doing fine, I can tell," he promised her, his voice muffled by her hair. "And even if she still hates you after this weekend, you'll have other chances to win her over."

"You!" Edie pinched what little skin she could pluck off his bones, it being mid season and he being in the shape of his life.

"Seriously? Injuring me before I even get on the ice? C'mon babe," he clutched at his sides and did his best to look honestly hurt but the laughter he was holding in made his chocolate brown eyes dance.

"_Are_ you coming to play tonight Toews?" Coach Quinneville smiled from beneath his mustache at the two of them and though he didn't seem to mind having one of his two stars loved up, Edie always shrank a little under his shrewd gaze. He looked like he should be a cop and a bad ass forty-five carrying mother fucker of a copy at that.

"I don't know if I can Coach," Jon continued to feign injury, "I'm injured," he added, still holding his side.

"Well, better strap some blades to the bottom of those stilettos then Eden or we'll be a man short. I'm pretty sure your boyfriend's jock will fit you," he added with a wink and then continued into the rink.

"Ouch," Edie grinned at Jonathan who was now staring after his Coach as if he'd been speared through the heart by his best friend. "C'mere you," she purred, and pulled on the lapels of his suit jacket. Jon's eyes suddenly got soft as he turned back to look down at her. "Play good, or I might forget where I put your Christmas present." She offered him her lips and he took them, softly, moving his mouth gently over hers until the mood threatened to shift to something that would make him even later.

"Right after, you guys all come down and we'll go home together, okay?" Edie nodded and then, as if he didn't want to go, he cupped her face in his big hands and smiled down at her. "Love you," he whispered.

"Love you too," she whispered back and then he smiled, that crooked, happy boyish smile of his that had, from the first, made her heart skip a beat. "Go," she said softly and his smile changed to the boy going off to the icy pond with his skates and stick in his hand. As he turned to go she wound up and gave his ass a hard smack.

"Hey!" he cried, turning to look at her.

"For luck," she told him and blew him a kiss, which he caught, mid air and pressed against his heart before turning and heading into the arena.

_the End_


	25. Chapter 25

_I had this idea for a Christmas one shot and then I thought of this story that I knew a lot of people were not very satisfied with the ending so I thought I would meet up with Jon & Edie a few months down the road...  
_

_Hey You Lover Boy, Will You Be My Toy; Hey You Lover Boy, Will You Be My Toy_

_Hey You Lover Boy, Will You Be My Toy; Hey You Lover Boy, Will You Be My Toy_

_Hey You Lover Boy, Will You Be My Toy; Hey You Lover Boy, Will You Be My Toy_

The sound of the ring tone she'd chosen for him and her phone vibrating across her night table only partially woke her. Edie reached for it, dragged it across the pillow and pressed it to her ear.

"Isssss early."

"Good morning gorgeous." Despite being woken up when she was huddled warm and cozy under the covers, in the middle of the bed surrounded by pillows and pressed between two snoring dogs, she smiled at the sound of his voice.

"But I'm sleeping," she muttered, her eyes still closed which aided in visualizing him sitting at a table in a hotel restaurant with an egg white omelet, all grain bagel and a glass of orange juice in front of him and Patrick Kane across the table making faces.

"Well it's time to get up sleeping beauty. You have lots to do today." She could hear the smile in his voice and that visual alone made her smile as she rolled over onto her back and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"Mmm just the last fitting," she yawned and stretched. The two big SPCA rescue mutts stirred beside her and began to yawn and stretch too. "Which is kind of a miracle considering you gave me no time at all to organize all of this," she added with another yawn.

"It's your fault for putting it off for so long," he chuckled, "and I'm glad you don't have anything else planed because actually I've arranged some things for you," he began and she could sense the twinkle of mischief in his dark eyes. "Go to the closet and look for a red box by my jeans."

"Red box?" Edie gave their Rottie a gentle shove that got the pooch moving and then she followed him to the walk in closet. His clothes, mostly t-shirts, jeans, sweaters and suits were all on one side while all of her clothes were on the other. His t-shirts were folded neatly and stacked according to colour on the middle shelves. His jeans, custom tailored to fit his generous derriere, were folded below. On the top shelf, where his summer shorts waited for better weather sat a long red box with a gold bow. "I can't believe I didn't notice this before," she mumbled as she went on tip toe to pull it down.

"I knew you'd still be too hammered from your hens night to see it there," he chuckled and she made a face and blew a raspberry into the phone as she made her way slowly back to the foot of their king sized bed. "Are you opening it?" he asked as she put the box down beside her on the purple and black sheets.

"Yeah, yeah, with some help," she mused as their black Lab took the end of the bow between her teeth and started to tug.

"Ah is Lulu helping?"

"Yep," she giggled as the Rottie ambled up and sniffed at the box. "You gonna help too Laurent?" she asked as the Lulu successfully pulled off the box and she lifted the lid from the box. Inside was a plush white robe with 'Trump' embroidered in gold letters on the breast.

"Open yet?" he asked, still sounding amused.

"Yes, what is this?" she asked as she ran her fingers over the ultra soft fabric.

"You and your girls are booked in at the spa in the Trump hotel. After you take our furry babies for a walk there should be a town car there to pick you up." Edie sighed and reached out to scratch the big Rottie on his head.

"That's pretty perfect. After last night I could do with a massage. Thanks babe," she grinned, imagining the smile of satisfaction her fiancé would be wearing.

"I thought you might. Make sure you get a mani peddi and whatever else you want too. Get the works," he encouraged her, as did the voice in the background she knew to be Pat's adding his two cents worth, something about a Brazilian and wanting proof it had been done.

"Tell Pat it makes me sick to my stomach he's even _thinking_ about me that way," she laughed.

"I will but uh…," his voice fell away and she could practically hear the blood rushing to the tips of his ears.

"Don't worry, I'll get the works," she promised with a chuckle.

"Miss you," he whispered.

"Miss you too," she repeated. "See you when you get back."

"I'll be the one waiting for you at the altar," he agreed. "Love you sweetheart."

* * *

"Jesus fucking Christ. Is that a wedding dress or a nightie?" Edie turned to glance over her shoulder at the plunging back of the silver white satin curve skimming gown.

"Do you think it's too sexy?" she asked, looking down at the cowl neck that draped elegantly just above her breasts, at the way her nipples showed clearly through the shimmering fabric. There was no possible way of wearing underwear beneath it. Everything showed; _everything_.

"I think you make Pippa _and_ Kate Middleton look like the ugly step sisters," her friend Carolyn gushed as she handed the bejeweled headband to the designer's assistant who carefully and gently slid it into Edie's thick, dark hair.

"But will he like it?" she asked, running her hand down over the curve of her hip to where the dress fell away to pool around her feet. A short train followed behind her like an ice covered lake of fabric.

"Like it? If you make it back down the aisle before he jumps you I'll be surprised," Carolyn snickered, standing back to survey the seamstresses handiwork. "You look like you should be on the cover of Vogue."

"Really?" Edie peered at her reflection and raised her hands up to where they would be when she carried her flowers down the aisle. "I was kind of hoping Cosmo…."

"''Kay now you sound like Kaner," her friend made a face and rolled her eyes. Edie looked back over her shoulder at her friend and work mate.

"Are you gonna be okay? I mean, he's one of the groomsman and he'll probably get faced and try and sleep with you again," Edie warned to which her friend only shrugged.

"There are worse things in the world than being humped by a horny hockey player." Edie raised her eyebrow and Carly shrugged the milky white shoulders that rose above the off the shoulder crimson gown that was nearly a match to her own, but shorter, much shorter. "What? He serves a purpose, like that thing you have in your drawer for when JT's on the road. I'm not having a relationship with him, are you kidding? I make him go home, every time, I _swear_," she added, tossing her honey gold curls and looking pleased with herself.

"I swear, you can tell me if you are seeing him," Edie coaxed but Carly just shook her head.

"Are you kidding? Me, get serious? When there's Nicky Hjalmarsson, Lepisto and Seabrook to play with too?" It was Edie's turn to roll her eyes and she shook her head and laughed. "I'm not saying you didn't get the pick of the litter Ede's but let's put it this way, I'm not heartbroken about moving to the Windy City."

* * *

"Last chance buddy," Pat, leaning around Jon's younger brother David, hissed as Mendelssohn's 'Wedding March' started, "all you have to do is say the word and we're outta here."

"You have to be joking," Jon grinned at his friend. "You just think if I bail you'll get a chance at Ede's and I'm tellin' you little buddy, it's never gonna happen." Pat shrugged.

"But think of all the girls that will be disappointed if you go through with this," his younger brother added with a wide eyed serious expression on his face. Jon gave his younger sibling a playful shove.

"I thought you liked her," Jon shook his head at his younger sibling.

"She's great, she can gut a fish and bait a hook which just means she's too good for you bro," David said solemnly, as if he meant.

"I'll tell Ede's you said that," Jon laughed.

"I wouldn't if I were you," David shot back and the two brothers laughed.

"She hasn't given you our Christmas present yet has she? Mmm yeah, maybe I won't tell her you said that," he added with a grin as his brother tugged at the collar of his shirt as if it has just become too tight. Jon had tied the tie himself so he knew it wasn't. That, and everything else, thanks to Edie, was just perfect today.

The church, already decked out for Christmas with candles and poinsettias was trimmed with fairy lights, silver garland and everywhere there was every size of silver bell and white dove that could be imagined. The aisle was a ribbon of white with silver and white sprayed tree boughs bending over it to create a magical passage, and at the end of it, his bride.

She looked like heaven. Of course he'd loved her from the moment they'd met but this was not the Jessica Rabbit red dress that had caught his eye across the room. Edie stood beside her father in a silvery, blue white gown that caught the light and made her look almost like a ghost; a sexy ghost. Her dark hair fell around her face like a picture frame and at her throat was the ruby heart he'd given her on Valentine's Day.

Now he tugged at his collar, feeling the same heat rising from his skin and skimming through his veins that seemed to happen every time he saw her after he'd been away. It could be a day or a week but it was the same every time. His hands opened and closed anxiously wanting to touch her. His mouth got dry with the need to kiss her. And then of course there were other body parts….

"Wow she's too hot for you Tayzer," Kaner scoffed but when Jon glanced at his mop-haired teammate on the stair below him he realized that while Pat might have been talking about his soon to be wife, his blue eyed gaze was fixed on the slim blonde with the goldilocks curls and the bright red lips.

There were a lot of things that Jon liked about Christmas, not least of which was Tourtière, Sugar Pie and his mother's butter tarts but ever since he'd caught Edie looking at pictures of wedding dresses he'd known the only thing he really wanted under the tree from Père Noël this year was her.

As she and her father come to a stop just below the stairs where he is waiting for her, her father stops and turns and leans in to press an affectionate kiss on his daughter's forehead and then he stands there for a long moment, Edie's cheek cradled in his hand, as if he is memorizing her face. Jon remembers doing something very like it on the first night they met but unlike that night at the masquerade charity ball he knew as he looked at her smiling up at her father, that he knew that face, every detail, by heart and he would never, ever forget it.

"You sure you want her son?" her father asked, giving his daughter's cheek one last pat before turning back towards the dais.

"Yes sir," Jon replied immediately. "No doubt about it."

Her father handed her to him, and his heart hammered excitedly in his chest as if she were those first pair of skates he ever opened Christmas morning. She beamed at him as she mounted the stairs carefully but as he leaned towards her to whisper to her how beautiful she looked her voice stopped him.

"Sucker," she whispered with a twinkle in her eye and a sly grin on her face. Jon shook his head and laughed. It was always like this with Edie.

* * *

_**Just a few weeks earlier**_

"_Are you looking at wedding magazines?" he'd found it in the bathroom when he'd got home in the middle of the night from a western swing. Edie blinked sleepily, yawned and peered at the cover of the Bridal magazine he was holding up. _

"_Not mine. Pat's new girlfriend Avery was over tonight to watch the game. It's probably hers," Edie replied and then buried her face in the pillow. "Now can I go back to sleep?" her voice was muffled by the pillow but he was almost sure that he'd heard a grin in her voice. She was lying which meant that his first thought on seeing the magazine was right. Edie was finally coming around to the idea of marrying him. Tugging off his tie, Jon undid the top two buttons of his shirt and pulled the entire ensemble over his head and tossed it aside. _

"_So does this mean you're finally ready to say yes?" he asked, ignoring her plea of ignorance to the evidence presented as he sat on the side of the bed and tugged off his socks. _

"_To what? I don't know what you're talking about," she mumbled and he knew just by the upturn in her voice that she was pretending to be asleep now which meant that she'd planted the magazine and she'd wanted him to find it. Jon stepped out of his suit pants and kicked them aside and then dove under the covers and dragged her warm body under his. _

"_Just say it," he growled as she squirmed and giggled beneath him. _

"_I don't know what you're talking about. What do you want me to say? You're my daddy?" she chuckled and grinned up at him, giving up the pretense of sleep. "Oooh Jon you're so masterful," she crooned and then squeaked when he drove his massive thigh between hers. _

"_That's a start," he snarled, nipping at earlobe, at the thin skin of her shoulder and then dragging his tongue down over her fragrant skin, he carefully avoided the hard nub of her nipple, just to make her squirm. "Now say you want to marry me," he insisted, his dark eyes watching hers' as she gazed down at him, desire heating her eyes until they sparkled in the dark like embers in a fire. _

"_That's not very romantic. Aren't you supposed to get down on one knee and….umph…ahhhh!" her voice trailed away and then her back bowed as he tugged her nipple between his teeth until she cried out and her nails dug into his back. _

"_I did that on the top of the Stratosphere, and then again, very carefully in a boat out on the lake and then there was that night out by the fire pit," he reminded her, sliding his hand down between her thighs and stroking her most sensitive of parts until her eyes fluttered shut. "I've asked," he whispered hoarsely into the shell of her ear, "and you've put me off. Now say yes Eden. Say you want to marry me." His cock was throbbing with the need to be inside of her and his balls were aching with the warning that once he was he wouldn't last long but neither of those two things were what he cared about at this moment. As much as he wanted to make love to her, which he always did, what he wanted most in that moment was for her to finally admit that she was never, ever going to want anyone else to do that to her, ever again. "Say it Edes, god damn it, just say you'll marry me." _

"_Yessss," she hissed, baring her teeth at him in a feral grin as she pulled his lips down over his. "Oh yesss I will," she repeated as he slid himself into her velvet soft folds and felt her arms wrap around his back. _

* * *

"We finally did it," he whispered, his lips brushing the sensitive skin at the nape of her neck, making her shudder.

"You mean you finally got your way don't you?" she smirked, wincing as he dragged his teeth along her bare shoulder.

"Now that you're my wife I think that you should be a little more respectful Mrs. Toews," he told her, giving her ass a firm swat. She didn't so much as yelp and just grinned at his reflection in the mirror.

"I think you're about to be very disappointed if that's what you asked Santa for," she demurred, biting down on her bottom lip as his dark gaze held hers as he slowly dragged the zipper of her dress down , his knuckles grazing her spine the entire way.

"Oh I'm not at all disappointed," he replied, his voice deep and husky as his gaze held hers for a long, heated moment before he reached around to peel her hand from the bodice and the dress slipped down into a shimmering pool at her feet. "No, I'm not disappointed in my Christmas gift at all," he repeated as his warm hands cupped her breasts and his lips trailed liquid fire up her neck.

Edie reached for one of his hands, with its long fingers, and led it down to a spot on her hip that what still slightly red and irritated looking. She sucked in a ragged breath through her teeth as his fingertips read her skin like brail and his teeth closed on her earlobe.

"Property of JT, permanently etched in my skin," she reminded him as she watched his fingers trace the crossed hockey sticks tattooed beneath the lettering that was purposefully reminiscent of the t-shirts the players wore that say 'property of the Chicago Blackhawks. His gaze met hers' and a slow, contented grin tugged at his cupid's bow lips.

"Best Christmas gift, ever," he whispered back and then slowly, very slowly, kissed his way down her back until he was on his knees pressing a very gentle kiss to the still tender and raw skin. "Maybe next Christmas," he added, rolling those dark orbs up at her right before he slid his hands up her thighs and parted her nether lips, "you can give me another gift, maybe a boy?" he asked with a grin and then slid his tongue between her folds and she had to dig her fingers into his hair as he hummed the First Noel against her clit.


End file.
